If we’re reading the leaves correctly, Melbourne’s tea culture is entering its golden era. How do you take yours? Picked from the mountains of south-west China and steeped to a stopwatch? Sweet, spicy, and redolent of the bustling streets of Mumbai? Served with a scone and a finger sandwich? Which ever way, we’ve got you covered with Melbourne’s best cafes for tea.

This list is part of Good Food’s Essential Melbourne Cafes and Bakeries of 2025. Presented by T2, this guide celebrates the people and places that shape our excellent cafe and bakery scenes and includes more than 100 venues reviewed anonymously across 10 categories, including icons, those best for food, tea, coffee and matcha, and where to get the city’s best sweets, sandwiches and baked goods. (These reviews also live on theGood Food app, and are discoverable on the map.) Here’s the tea.

Hopetoun Bake Shop

The relocated tearooms are still percolating on Bourke Street, but this 20-seat basement venue offers a preview. Green banquettes and wallpaper nod to the original location, and diners have a window into the commercial bakery. Shelves are stacked with 24 house tea blends, from floral Lady Hopetoun to Australiana spins, including genmaicha with wattleseed. Drink in or take your tea home in a handsome tin.

Good to know: Modest three-tier tea stands ($35 per person) are a stand-in until the big opening.

Basement, 22 McKillop Street, Melbourne, hopetountearooms.com.au

Dropout Chaiwala

If you need to ask what a chaiwala is, you’re probably early on your spiced tea journey. This fledgling Indian chain, started by former business student Sanjith Konda House (the “dropout” in the name), is a great place to begin. Make like the expats and order masala chai, fragrant with cloves, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, or try a cardamom variation. Be sure to add a samosa.

Good to know: The question isn’t whether you’d like sugar, it’s how much.

59 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, dropoutchaiwala.com

Tea Drop

Take this long-standing tea purveyor’s flavours for a test drive at its South Melbourne Market brew bar. There are more than 100 combinations available to purchase, from black and white loose leaves to fruity blends, spiced chai mixes and more, plus cold brew taps pouring 24-hour extracted iced teas. Sniff, peruse and watch your choice of tea brewed before your eyes, and take a cuppa for a walk around the market before committing to a box for home.

Must order: The Birthday Cake tea blends fruits like apple with blueberry cake flavour and Irish cream for a subtly sweet beverage with a nostalgic kick.

Shop 34, South Melbourne Market, Corner of Cecil & Coventry Street, teadrop.com.au

YTB

As with its original name (Yugen Tea Bar), the tea list has contracted, but each is described with reverence. From “riesling-like” white (bai mudan) to sweet roasted red (da hong pa oolong) or smoky (Japanese wakocha, finished in whisky barrels), expect the traditional and rare. Melbourne-black teapots match the salon’s sculptural shards, the striking interior matte like the ganache of the showstopper “Bruce” chocolate cake.

Must-order dish: Egg-filled buckwheat taiyaki is a savoury spin on morning tea.

10/605 Chapel Street, South Yarra, yugenteabar.com.au

Assembly

In a coffee-obsessed city, finding anywhere that serves more than five types of tea is exciting. This little Carlton cafe quietly showcases more than three times that number, spanning white to amber tea, selected carefully from renowned regions such as Yunnan and Kagoshima. Herbal tisanes are blended in-house, and beautiful servingware makes each sip an act of self-care.

Good to know: Assembly is equally serious about coffee, offering both tea and coffee subscriptions.

60-62 Pelham Street, Carlton, assemblystore.com

NGV Tea Room

Masterpieces await behind the NGV’s soaring water feature – and we don’t mean artworks. Sit down to a tiered high tea or opt for the Devonshire: both allow you to admire impossibly light scones, best paired with a steaming pot of Serenitea Earl Grey or green Darjeeling. Service is friendlier than the starched linen and silverware suggests, and lunch (fish and chips, soup) is also served.

Good to know: Entry into the NGV and its restaurants and cafes is free.

Level One, National Gallery of Victoria, 180 St Kilda Road, Southbank, ngv.vic.gov.au

Good Food’s Essential Melbourne Cafes and Bakeries of 2025, presented by T2, celebrates the people and places that shape our excellent cafe and bakery scenes and includes more than 100 venues reviewed anonymously across 10 categories, including icons, those best for food, tea, coffee and matcha, and where to get the city’s best sweets, sandwiches and baked goods. Download the Good Food app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store to discover what’s near you.