Aqua S

The hugely popular Aqua S, Sydney’s dreamy soft-serve ice-cream parlour, opened its first Melbourne store on June 21, 2016. Its fourth store in Australia, it comes with everything we love about the original – sea-salt soft serves in bright, aqua blue; striking toppings, such as fairy floss and toasted marshmallow; and new flavours every fortnight.

The Melbourne branch also does slushies with soft serve on top. The shop only has a few seats and the walls are striped with baby blue, pink and yellow.

Co-founder of Aqua S Jennifer Lam was inspired to bring the sea-salt soft serves to Australia after trying them in Okinawa, Japan. She introduced the signature electric-blue colour to Aqua S.

The soft serve has an unusual taste. The saltiness of the ice-cream hits first, but it’s tempered by the fairy floss and marshmallow, which is toasted via blowtorch in the shop.

Try the signature sea salt, pandan, or lemon-squash soft serve, and top it with fairy floss, sweet popcorn, popping candy, toasted marshmallow, palmiers, mochi or sweet egg roll.

The slushy comes in lychee or peach iced tea. There are milk-free, gluten-free, egg-free and nut-free soft-serve options, too.