Cafes from Australia, Austria, US, Norway, and Singapore are in the top five. A cafe in Australia’s Sydney has been ranked as the world’s best coffee shop, with those in the US, Austria, Norway, and Singapore following close behind. “Not every day you get to say you’re #1 in the world at something, but here we are – Toby’s Estate has officially taken the crown!” the brand wrote on Instagram.
“We’re beyond stoked to top the list – and to represent Australia alongside some of the best cafés in the game…We designed the space to break down barriers – literally – with an island brew bar and overhead mirrors, so you can get up close, chat with the team, and watch the magic unfold.”.
In second spot is Onyx Coffee Lab, which has several locations across Arkansas in the US. Closing out the top three is Gota Coffee Experts in Austria’s Vienna, known not only for its coffee, but also its interactive coffee workshops. The list is created after careful consideration of the quality of the coffee and food, customer service, cafe ambience, sustainable policies, barista experience, and overall consistency and innovation. Public opinion and expert evaluations were both included in the final ranking.
In the top 10 are also cafes from Singapore, France, Malaysia, and Colombia. With a total of nine Australian cafes on the list, it’s safe to say the country is doing something right with their coffee, even if they can’t agree on whether Melbourne or Sydney does it better.
Coffee first became popular in Australia in the 1880s after the emergence of the Temperance Movement in Melbourne, which lobbied against alcohol, claiming it led to antisocial behaviour. This, along with the rise of chic Parisian cafes, led to the creation of coffee palaces, to give people a place to meet and socialise over food and a drink.
Melbourne saw the biggest growth, with lavish multi-storey coffee palaces that offered an alternative to pubs. Elegant and grand, the coffee palaces served as vibrant social hubs for Australian society, with their popularity swiftly reaching cities like Sydney.
Espresso arrived in the 1930s with Italian immigrants, but it truly found a home in the 1950s, when post-World War II European immigrants brought the continent’s cafe culture with them. Over the years, Australia has developed its own culture and in fact, created its own version. Alan Preston, of the Moors Espresso Bar in Sydney, claims he was the first to coin the term “flat white” in 1985, drawing inspiration from a type of espresso popular in Queensland in the ‘60s and ‘70s, described as the “white coffee – flat”.
However, New Zealand’s Frank McInnes, contests the claim, and says he accidentally invented the flat white when the milk needed for a frothy cappuccino refused to rise. “Sorry,” he said, “it’s a flat white”. “I think our win is a win for the country. Australian coffee is, I think, the best in the world and so it doesn’t come down to Sydney and Melbourne,” Jody Leslie, general manager for Toby’s Estate, told CNN Travel. “We want to be strong as a country, and that helps everyone.”.
