The Mont Blanc Is the Next Big Coffee Trend From Australia — So What Is It?

Melbourne is one of the great coffee capitals of the world. Known for its vibrant café culture, the Australian city’s streets are lined with artisanal coffee shops, each boasting high-quality espresso drinks (and the occasional avo smash, of course). Despite some debate from Australia’s neighboring island nation (cough cough, New Zealand), Melbourne also lays claim to the invention of the flat white — a frothy steamed milk and espresso drink that’s catapulted onto coffee shop menus across the globe over the past decade. But recently, a new creamy concoction has emerged from the café-obsessed city, and U.S. coffee shops and content creators alike have taken notice.

Originally created in 2022 at Melbourne’s popular café-cum-bar Good Measure, the Mont Blanc is a fragrant, slightly sweet coffee drink made with cold brew and a thick layer of cream, dusted with fresh orange zest and grated nutmeg. Its visual appeal and trendy layered look inspired droves of people to line up to try it. (According to a 2024 interview, Good Measure was serving about 800 Mont Blancs a day on the weekends.) As word caught on, local coffee shops across Australia started to reproduce it, and eventually the Mont Blanc took off on social media, reaching coffee shops across the globe.

Photo courtesy of Good Measure

One of the U.S.-based cafés that have already embraced the Mont Blanc is Little Joy in Northfield, Minn. Owner Cody Larson first came across the drink online and was intrigued by its appearance. It plays off multiple trends currently unfolding in the industry, including adding cold foam or cream to every drink. “It’s not only delicious, but the Mont Blanc, with its orange zest and grated nutmeg garnish, is very Instagrammable,” Larson says.

For Little Joy’s Mont Blanc, Larson starts by making an orange-infused cream for the top layer. First, he combines orange peels with sugar to make an orange oleo sacrum. “When combined with orange zest and allowed to sit for a day or two, the sugar pulls the oils from the orange, resulting in a really dense and flavorful syrup,” he says. “We add a splash of vanilla to ours for an orange Creamsicle sort of vibe.” This is whipped together with heavy cream and skim milk with a milk frother until it forms soft peaks. In terms of coffee bean selection, Larson suggests using a fruit-forward variety to make the cold brew.

For the final drink, Larson pours the cold brew over ice until it’s about two-thirds full, then tops up the final third of the glass with the orange-vanilla cream. The fresh orange zest and grated nutmeg on top complete the picture and give the drink its signature aromatic pop.

Larson added the Mont Blanc to Little Joy’s summer menu earlier this year, and it quickly became one of the café’s most popular drinks. “It’s in the top three drinks sold this summer and probably the drink we get the most compliments on,” he says.

With the rise of flavorful, cream-topped, social media-friendly coffee drinks, we can certainly expect to see more of the Mont Blanc stateside soon.

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