Exchange Coffee Adelaide | World’s Top 100 Coffee Shop (#37) You Must Visit

 Beep, beep, beep—after a 2-hour-and-45-minute flight from Brisbane with Qantas, I landed in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. Funny enough, the first time I ever heard the name Adelaide was years ago, back when I was still a student, from a lyric in the song Melbourne, Sunny: “the view from the Adelaide Hills…” Somehow, at that moment, a tiny seed was planted in my mind. Adelaide—nice name. I want to go there.

Time passed. I fell in love with coffee, and with Australia. I often joke that Australia is my “happy homeland.” Now, on my second visit, I’m continuing a deeper exploration—almost like a quiet calling that pulled me from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern.

As Australia’s fifth-largest city, Adelaide is special for one key reason: it was planned before it was built. With a population of about 1.3 million, seeing it from the air honestly felt a bit like The Truman Show. The city has preserved more historic architecture, and the pace of life here feels calmer and more at ease—Australia’s laid-back vibe, fully dialed in.

No matter how many cafés you plan to visit in Adelaide, there’s one place you absolutely shouldn’t miss: the State Library of South Australia. I actually wrote most of my café notes right there—it was incredible. On the second floor, there’s a clock that’s over 140 years old. It still needs to be manually wound every single week, and for 140 years, the librarians have done exactly that. If that isn’t tradition and continuity, I don’t know what is.

I stood next to the clock, read its plaque, and could clearly hear the steady, powerful ticking of the hands. I don’t know why, but that moment genuinely moved me. Oh—and Adelaide is 2.5 hours ahead of China.

We may not have lived through history from a century ago, but the old books here bear witness to it. Every single one is available to be opened and read. My eyes landed on a book first published in 1959, LOVE and the French. Inside, there was a borrowing notice pasted on the page. The moment my fingers touched it, I felt connected to everyone who had ever held this book before me.

Much like the cafés I love, today’s highlight—Exchange Coffee, located at 12/18 Vardon Ave, Adelaide SA 5000—was one of the places I most looked forward to on this trip. And it absolutely delivered. The cafés I want to visit—no matter how far—they’re always worth the journey.

Exchange Coffee is a specialty café in Adelaide and incredibly popular with locals. Honestly, no matter when you show up, it’s almost always packed, inside and out. Founded in 2013, it’s already been around for more than a decade. Will it last a hundred years like that library clock? Who knows. But what we do know is that it earned a spot on the 2025 World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops list, ranking #37—and that’s no joke.

True to its name, Exchange feels like a hub for flavor exchange. The team is committed to sustainable, responsible sourcing and thoughtful roasting. Interestingly, the street it’s on used to be a quiet little lane with barely any decent food or drink spots nearby. Their original goal was simple: to give Adelaide an exceptional coffee experience and build a real coffee-centered community. Over time, the area came alive, and in 2023, they even doubled the size of the original space.

After more than ten years of deeply rooted work in a micro-community, Exchange has managed something rare: even as the space expanded and evolved, it never lost its warm, neighborhood feel. In Australia, most cafés offer table service—you sit down first, and a barista comes over to take your order. The menu here is clear and well designed, and this visit, I was fully focused on coffee.

At the bar, there are three espresso options available. One is decaf; the other two are single-origin espressos. Exchange’s core philosophy revolves around “bean sourcing,” so many of their coffees rotate in as guest roasters. Their mainstay beans come from Market Lane Coffee, a well-known Melbourne roaster I’ve visited before—and they even sell Market Lane merch in-store. You’ll also discover several smaller, beautifully curated Australian roasters here.

After chatting with the barista, I went with the most classic option: a Brazil SOE from Market Lane. The beans come from Chapada Diamantina, Bahia, and are naturally processed, using Catuai and Topazio varieties. (Topazio was developed in the 1960s by the Agronomic Institute of Campinas and is a hybrid descendant of Mundo Novo and Red Catuai.)

I ordered a flat white with this bean—and wow. Clean, pure, high sweetness, perfectly balanced. The kind of Brazilian coffee that immediately tells you: this green bean was not cheap. How does a single-origin Brazil stand on its own like this, without blending, and still hit so hard? Unreal. Brazil probably can’t even keep beans like this for itself.

Flavor notes? Maple syrup, milk chocolate, and creamy cake. I’d heard that coffees from this region often show nutty, creamy characteristics with a full body and long finish—and this cup absolutely nailed it.

The real surprise, though, came from another bean: a washed El Salvador Pacamara. I ordered my go-to Australian pairing—a long black. One sip. Just one. Completely won me over.

The lemon acidity was insanely clean and bright—so bright, yet incredibly comfortable. Lively, vibrant, penetrating, with both clarity and depth. Then the sweetness kicked in, layering beautifully across the palate, followed by hints of chocolate and lightly roasted nuts, finishing with a touch of caramel.

I was genuinely tempted to buy a bag, but sadly, it was already sold out. Still, I walked away discovering a fantastic roaster: Floozy, founded in 2017 and based in Newcastle, New South Wales. If you ever come across them while traveling, do yourself a favor and grab a cup—their roasting style is seriously impressive.