The Online Smoothie Craze Hits Melbourne With Yawye’s Sea Moss and MCT Oil-Filled Drinks

Yawye – a new smoothie bar and initialisation for "you are what you eat" – recently opened in the CBD. But you won’t find drinks like Boost Juice’s passion mango smoothie or Tropicana Juice’s banana smoothie. Instead, Yawye specialises in the kind of wellness smoothies that promise to deliver healthier complexions and are designed by “health food experts".

They’re the kind of smoothies that have enjoyed growing internet fame in recent years, thanks in large part to luxury US grocery store chain Erewhon. The store itself has become something of a phenomenon online and something of a status symbol supermarket in the States. Celebrities including Kim Kardashian have posed with bags from the grocery store and the chain even collaborated with luxury brand Balenciaga (which, yes, Kardashian is a spokesperson for) on merch.

Part of Erewhon’s popularity – and virality – is due to its celebrity smoothie collaborations. The chain has worked with Gisele Bündchen on a Giselderberry Boost smoothie; Olivia Rodrigo on a “good 4 ur GUTS” smoothie; and Hailey Bieber on a Strawberry Skin Glaze smoothie that was such a phenomenon even Melbourne chain Green Cup made a version).

With all the online smoothie buzz, it’s unsurprising to see a store like Yawye open.

The shop on the corner of Russell Street and Little Collins Street specialises in highly Instagrammable colourful smoothies and acai bowls. The shop has little seating and is set up for grab-and-go drink orders, but it’s flooded with natural light, making it the perfect place for capturing smoothie content.

The smoothie menu was designed by Sarah Watson, who has worked as a private chef for tennis stars and actors. She says the drinks were all designed to have specific benefits and embody the “you are what you eat” ethos.

Watson’s menu leans into wellness trends and includes drinks like Blue Lagoon, which has nine ingredients including blue majik powder (derived from spirulina) and marine collagen powder, and Green Planet, which has MCT oil, also known as medium chain triglycerides, usually made from coconut or palm kernel oil.

Watson’s go-to is The Cosmic Coffee, an iced coffee with espresso, almond butter, MCT oil and cacao. Followed closely by the Fountain of Youth, which is matcha-based with added “skin-loving ingredients” such as marine collagen, hemp seeds, tocos and sea moss, an ingredient that some claim improves heart health, lowers cholesterol and helps with weight loss, and has gained popularity largely because of Kardashian’s endorsement of the ingredient and Bieber’s Erewhon smoothie and the grocery store’s colourful sea moss gels.

While the world of wellness smoothies might seem intimidating, the Yawye staff are more than happy to explain each flavour or recommend which one will suit you the best, whether it is to recover from a hangover or to survive on little to no sleep from the night before.

Yawye
181 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
No phone

Hours:
Mon to Fri 8.30am–3.30pm
Sat & Sun 9.30am–3.30pm

yawye.au
@yawye.yawye/