MELBOURNE’S love affair with coffee is spilling over into schools as old-fashioned canteens make way for trendy cafes.

The caffeine revolution has seen coffee machines and trained baristas selling flat whites and lattes in at least 20 Victorian secondary schools.

Health officials are concerned by the trend, saying young people would be better off not drinking coffee.

Schools with coffee on the menu include Trinity Grammar, Wantirna Secondary College, Cranbourne Secondary College, Melbourne Girls’ College, Balwyn High School, Brunswick Secondary College, Camberwell Grammar, Blackburn High School, Maribyrnong College and Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School.

Trinity Grammar has a cafe with a barista serving hot drinks, mainly to year 11 and 12 students and staff.

Deputy Headmaster Ro-han Brown said: “We have to be careful about being a nanny state about everything.

“Our year 11 and year 12 students are reaching adulthood. They will be able to have a cup of coffee at home and they are able to go out to a cafe on the weekend.”

He said young people needed to make their own decisions. If they were “wrapped in cotton wool”, eventually they had to be unwrapped.

Bocca Foods director Michael Lirosi said his company had contracts with 18 schools and all had coffee machines.

Sales depended on the schools’ demographics. Those with greater European populations tended to drink more.

“When we started nine years ago I could see coffee was a growing trend around Melbourne ... Now if we put in a tender and we don’t have a coffee machine, we’d be shot,” Mr Lirosi said.

Coffee-buying students were usually in years 10 to 12, most bought only one drink a day, and many preferred hot chocolate. Staff were big customers, he said.

But Victorian Health Promotion Foundation programs executive manager Dr Bruce Bolam said schools should be “beacons of healthy eating”, and even half a cup could cause palpitations.

“I’m very concerned, somewhat surprised and confused by it,” he said about coffee in schools.

kathryn.powley@news.com.au