This Australian Coffee Drink Incorporates An Unexpected Fruit

We are all drinking more coffee than ever, and we seem to like to upgrade our coffee orders too: Be that by making them lattes, adding syrup, or even Starbucks' new cold protein foam. If there's one country that really sets the standard when it comes to delivering your coffee order, that's Australia. Its vibrant cultural hub, Melbourne, helped popularize the flat white across the Pacific, and then the Atlantic. But one of its more recent coffee creations, the Mont Blanc, has one addition that you might not expect in your daily caffeine fix: A touch of orange.

While coffee and orange might not seem like the most natural of pairings, they are not alien to each other. Indeed, Elvis Presley himself liked to take his breakfast coffee with the fruity beverage. Yet mixing them together might seem like one rather idiosyncratic step too far. A classic Mont Blanc — not to be confused with the similarly named Parisian dessert, made with whipped chestnut cream — combines coffee with a thick foam cap, aromatic spices like nutmeg, and, yes, a dash of orange juice and zest, which is exactly what makes it so distinctive.

The coffee drink was officially launched in 2021 at Good Measure, a Melbourne café, taking cues from South Korean coffee trends that took Covid-era social media by storm — dalgona, made with whipped coffee, being the most famous — and giving it an Aussie twist. Named after the snow-capped Alpine mountain straddling Italy and France, the recipe itself went viral on apps like TikTok, but it clearly had staying power, especially as Good Measure occasionally reports over a thousand Mont Blanc orders on some weekends (per The Guardian). Adding orange to coffee may certainly raise some eyebrows, but it's no gimmick — and it's surprisingly easy to make at home too.

You don't need to fly across the Pacific — or head to speciality cafés in Chicago or New York City — to get your hands on a Mont Blanc. To make one at home, you need a glass of cold brew or chilled filter coffee poured over ice. The topping then consists of a quarter cup of cream with one-and-a-half tablespoons of orange juice and maple syrup, whisked until it's thick in texture (don't whip it too far, or you'll get stiff peaks, which you don't want), poured on the iced coffee, and then finally topped with some fresh nutmeg and the star of the show: orange zest, finely grated. You can also try some variations, including topping the foam with pistachio, flake salt, or chai dust.

Orange is what both brightens and lightens a Mont Blanc, giving it a citrusy, zesty aroma that prevents the cream from being too heavy. Combining espresso with the fruit may seem like a decidedly odd mix, but the tangy, tarty sweetness of the orange complements the depth of the coffee and brings out its own fruity notes. And it's not the only caffeinated beverage that calls for the addition of orange: There's the straight-up orange americano — freshly squeezed juice and coffee — which has also made the rounds of social media, as well as a boozier Mexican version, a lighter take on the espresso martini called the carajillo, which calls for espresso, Licor 43, and some orange zest.