Pu’er Coffee

 As I’ve always believed, the best way to understand a city is to start at its city hall — and in Adelaide, that’s exactly where my journey began. When you mention Adelaide, you inevitably think of its namesake. The city was named after Queen Adelaide, wife of King William IV of the United Kingdom. Inside Adelaide Town Hall stands a marble statue of Queen Adelaide, sculpted by British artist Francis William Woodington. Originally installed in 1864 beside the main staircase, the statue commemorates the woman for whom the city was named. After joining a guided tour and learning more about Adelaide’s history, I found myself reflecting on how remarkably forward-thinking its urban planning was. The city center follows a precise grid layout, with east–west and north–south streets intersecting at perfect right angles. It feels logical, intuitive, and incredibly easy to navigate. With a metro card in hand, setting off on a spontaneous city walk feels effortlessly enjoyable. Today’s caf...

 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 calme...

 When people talk about the “Michelin Guide” of the coffee world, The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops always comes up. This annual ranking releases a fresh list every year, and it’s something I personally keep a close eye on. It has also become one of my go-to references whenever I travel to a new country and start mapping out which cafés I have to visit. Australia, of course, is a paradise for coffee lovers. Beyond Melbourne—the widely recognized “coffee capital of the world”—cities like Brisbane, where I’m currently based, have also become major contenders on the list. So on this trip to Australia, I’ve made it a point to visit several cafés featured in the 2025 World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops ranking. Naturally, that makes the titles a bit simpler this time—haha. Today’s spotlight is on the café ranked No. 70 in the 2025 list: Fonzie Abbott , located at 40 Fox St, Albion QLD 4010 . Getting around Brisbane is refreshingly easy. Public transportation is well developed—and the b...