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An Introduction to Australia's Hidden Menu Magic! What Does Melbourne's Magic Coffee Represent?

Published: 2026-01-28 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/28, There exists a coffee beverage that is rarely listed on café menus, and many baristas from various countries are unaware of its existence. However, if you find yourself face to face with a Melbourne barista and ask for a 'Magic', they will certainly understand. Subsequently, they will serve you a very strong espresso milk coffee.

There is a type of coffee that rarely appears on café menus, and many baristas around the world don't even know of its existence. However, if you're standing in front of a Melbourne barista and ask for a "Magic," they will certainly understand. They'll then serve you an incredibly rich Italian milk coffee.

This is a niche Italian coffee beverage that's difficult to translate—you might call it magical coffee, enchanting coffee, or mystic coffee. In essence, in the eyes of Melbourne baristas, the word "Magic" describes an exceptionally crafted and captivating Italian milk coffee drink.

In terms of volume, Magic Coffee is typically served in 120ml-170ml cups, and baristas often don't fill them to capacity. It appears larger than a piccolo (90ml) but slightly smaller than a flat white (200ml), and the coffee concentration follows suit.

From left to right: Flat White, Magic, Piccolo

In terms of preparation technique, Magic uses a double ristretto as its base, combined with steamed milk featuring a dense, thin layer of microfoam (less than 0.5cm). Cafés that serve Magic typically use 5-6 ounce ceramic cups, with milk integrated to about three-quarters of the cup's height, creating the appearance of a flat white with less milk.

The double ristretto base combined with a small proportion of milk, paired with silky thin microfoam, diminishes the bitter aftertaste of coffee while allowing the bean's aroma to display more magnificently. It perfectly satisfies those customers who seek intense coffee flavor but don't want to consume too much milk, without leaving them feeling overly full.

Magic: Melbourne's Coffee Innovation

Magic can be considered one of Melbourne's representative coffee creations and is currently popular only in its local region. Like the origin of flat white, it emerged from local coffee professionals' continuous pursuit of excellence in Italian coffee. Regarding Magic's birth, FrontStreet Coffee couldn't find detailed origin records, and its preparation proportions have no unified standard.

Typically, Magic doesn't appear as an official category on café's fixed Italian coffee menus. Some cafés don't even have dedicated Magic cups. It exists more as a "secret menu" item among baristas, waiting for coffee enthusiasts from around the world to "unlock" and discover its charm.

Customizing Magic Coffee

When you walk into a café without Magic on the menu and order a "magical coffee," the barista might use a flat white cup or latte cup, then fill it with steamed milk to about 70% capacity, adjusting details like milk quantity, temperature, and foam thickness according to the characteristics of the coffee beans used, thus "tailoring" their own version of Magic.

FrontStreet Coffee's Magic Recipe

When FrontStreet Coffee recreated Magic Italian coffee, we used a 150ml capacity ceramic cup, with our house-blend "Sunflower Warm Sunshine" Italian coffee beans. The espresso base uses Ristretto, combining with hot milk featuring a thin layer of microfoam until the cup is three-quarters full.

The day's espresso extraction parameters were: 19.8g of coffee grounds, 30 seconds, yielding 37g of coffee liquid. Here, the ristretto extraction method uses only 70% of the espresso output—19.8g of coffee grounds, extracted over 21 seconds to yield approximately 25g of coffee liquid. Foam thickness was controlled to around 0.3cm, with temperature brought to 55°C for immediate tasting.

Left: Ristretto Right: Espresso

FrontStreet Coffee tasted this Magic coffee, and the first impression was an exceptionally bold coffee flavor that might make your eyebrows slightly raise. After swallowing, you experience the sweetness of milk and lingering caramel and cocoa notes in the mouth. The light, silky microfoam intertwines perfectly with the concentrated espresso, allowing you to clearly perceive the flavor profile of the beans—making it a relatively "intense" Italian milk coffee.