Melbourne is big on their coffee and to say that it’s a huge part of the culture here would be somewhat of an understatement. As a non caffeine addict living in the Melbourne CBD, I sometimes feel a bit excluded from the coffee culture. I know I can easily sit in a café, order lunch, use the free Wi-Fi, and that be that, but when the waitress asks what I would like to drink, I can always tell that they are slightly thrown off when I say that I am fine with water. So, I have adopted the chai latte as my water (or beer) afternoon substitute. I never realized that a chai latte was simply chai black tea brewed with milk instead of water. And come to find out, chai offers a lot of health benefits. Even though I am not actually drinking coffee, the “latte” part of my tea order makes it sound (and almost makes me feel) like I am drinking coffee and is just a silly little way for me to enjoy Melbourne life a bit more. On my free days, I have been enjoying café hopping to new and different places around town (my bar hopping escapades will be exclusively featured in another blog to come) and I am still on the hunt for a chai latte that tops the one at Hash. The barista does not use chai powder like a lot of other places and she has her own recipe that includes just a touch of chili in it, which is not common for a chai but is delicious and totally works.
As far as the rest of my “day to day” life in Melbourne, I workout with my girlfriends in Collingwood every Wednesday night, catch up with the Raiders when I can on Thursdays or Fridays and go out for steak night with friends, date night with my boyfriend Anthony or gym night with my neighboring friends in between. When I left for Australia 6 months ago, my primary goal was to feel like I created a life for myself and am apart of the community here, and I feel like so far I have been very successful in that aspect and am so proud of myself for finally getting happy again J
Today’s picture is of the sunset from my balcony view. Needless to say, I really love where I am living.
Steph Dobson 
I challenge you, in your next cafe experience to order a Tumeric Latte, or ‘golden latte’ It tastes great and it has health benefits! You can be all Melbourne Cafe Culture Fancy!