What Happened With the Australian Coffee Breast Milk Sign?

A cafe called Sergy Boy on Collins Street in Melbourne's Docklands area wrote "Next week: Breast Milk $5" on a small blackboard above its pastry display. A customer from Sydney noticed the line, where almond milk cost only 50 Australian cents, and asked staff about it; a barista said the advertisement was just a joke.

The sign followed a wider trend in Australian coffee culture of adding oat, almond, coconut, and lactose-free milk to menus. A cafe in Russia once made cappuccinos with breast milk and sold them for 650 rubles, but human breast milk is prohibited from commercial sale in many places, including China, so the Melbourne board stayed a publicity stunt rather than a product.

In recent years, coffee shops have been rolling out alternative dairy products such as oat milk, almond milk, and coconut milk to cater to diverse demands. However, a café in Melbourne wrote "Next week: Breast Milk $5" on its menu, surprising customers. Although the shop later claimed it was just a joke, a café in Russia did once make cappuccinos with breast milk, selling each cup for as much as 650 rubles. It is worth noting that in our country, human breast milk is explicitly prohibited from being sold as a commodity. This article will take you through the ins and outs of this "breast milk coffee" controversy.

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Nowadays, in order to attract more customers, many coffee shops keep up with the trend and offer a variety of dairy or non-dairy options, such as purified milk, almond milk, oat milk, coconut milk, etc. But recently, a café in the Southern Hemisphere took a "different approach" and added "breast milk" to its menu.

According to a report by news media News on November 4, the café is called Sergy Boy and is located on Collins Street in the Docklands area of Melbourne. It daily serves various coffee drinks as well as some regular dairy products, including almond milk, oat milk, lactose-free milk, etc. But not long ago, a customer偶然 discovered that under a small blackboard, the shop had written: "Next week: Breast Milk $5."

The customer said he was not a Melbourne local but was in town from Sydney on business. At the time, he was looking for a place to buy coffee and quickly noticed this busy coffee shop because it was packed with people. When he walked up to the counter to order, he saw this small blackboard standing above the pastry display, listing the various alternative milks available, and the last line, "breast milk," stood out especially.

From the photo he posted, it can be seen that if customers want to add almond milk, it costs only 50 Australian cents, while "breast milk" is priced at 5 Australian dollars (about 23.46 yuan), clearly much higher than the other alternative milks.

Shocked, the man pointed at the sign and asked the staff. At first, the other party thought he wanted to order "breast milk coffee," but then another barista explained to him that the advertisement was "just a joke." As an out-of-towner, he said he could understand the café's "joke," because "I know Melbourne is famous for being trendy and avant-garde, so I wouldn't be surprised that they would have this kind of idea!"

Although we cannot be sure whether this Melbourne café's "new product" was a joke or just an attention-grabbing stunt, there have indeed been real cases of "breast milk coffee" in the industry.

In May last year, Coffee Workshop reported that a small café in Russia used "breast milk" as a selling point, replacing the regular milk in cappuccinos with "special fresh breast milk." Each cup sold for 650 rubles (about 56 yuan), four times the price of the shop's regular coffee. In an interview, the owner mentioned that thanks to this "selling point," they once successfully sold more than 50 cups of this specially made milk coffee.

It is worth mentioning that this kind of breast milk product cannot be produced or sold in our country and may also be suspected of illegal business operations. As early as 2000, the "Official Reply of the Department of Law and Supervision of the Ministry of Health on the Prohibition of Human Breast Milk as a Commodity for Business" clearly pointed out that breast milk is not a food resource and cannot be sold as a commodity.

Image source: News

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