With its ancient coffee grinding equipment, fragrant sacks of substandard local coffee and scant business, I'm not sure how this place still survives. I suppose it's because it's owned by Island Coffee, one of the main producers of local coffee. Like the coffee, the shop appears to have come into existence during the 60/70s socialist import substitution era and it hasn't upgraded in any discernible way since.
For the uninitiated, local coffee is pretty bad - with the exception of maybe
Hansa coffee This is frustrating because our neighbours South India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia produce excellent coffee. So why are we left with mud-tasting dregs?
This proviso aside, I actually love the Island Coffee shop. It is so utterly charming and captures perfectly the spirit of a Colombo that is now slipping from the collective memory - an age where nothing was imported and everything made locally. The shop is basically an incredibly sleepy, coffee smelling rip in the space time continuum; primitive weighing and grinding machines, various inefficient processes even for the most simple transactions, and the feeling that the outside world's perception of hours and minutes just aren't that important in here.
They do serve a good iced coffee (Rs. 30) which is somewhat different to the usual Colombo iced coffee. They substitute real coffee for the customary Nescafe which gives it that undeniable 'earthy' hit of local coffee beans and a few sludgy grains at the bottom of your glass that proves it.
You can also buy their beans cheaply here and have them ground to your liking. The result- it's better than the packs of pre-ground Island Coffee you get in Supermarkets. There's also the option of mixing Hansa, Island and Harischandra (the local coffee triumvirate) to create your own overwhelmingly Lankan blend. I've tried this and gained exciting results.
TIP
Come here, its just amazingly quaint and the Rs. 40 Ice Coffee is bang for your buck. It's on the corner of Shrubbery Gardens and the Galle Road sort of opposite CASA Colombo.
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D
wow… Island coffee. This really take me back… almost 30 years back. When my grandfather used to buy me ice coffee from here.
Arquib
The aroma of the coffee can be sniffed from as far as 30 meters. The only consume-now product in this shop - the Rs. 30 Iced Coffee is very highly caffeine concentrated, good for a kick start in the morning. Not open on Sunday though.
Ravindu
I've seen this place when I travel from the bus. There is a bus halt right in front of this shop. Whenever the bus stops at the halt, the aroma of the coffee can be sniffed as Arquib said.
Judy
Its funny to have bumped on to this post…was mentioning to my husband a few days back about this place and how my mum takes me there for cup or may be two once in a while when I was a wee kid.Funnily enough not many remember or have visited this wonderful venue having lived all their life in SL.
A
aww it brings back good old memories…………….i went to HFC so of course once in a week i dropped in at the coffee shop with my dad for a cup or mostly two, after school……from the day I went to nursey the shop was there………like 20 years back………………the smell itself is capable of bringing back our good old days and childhood memories……just luv it from day one…………
paige
Yeah I agree with u guys the ice coffee there is great!!!! Real coffee taste.
Ps to the guy who wrote this article, they have different flavors of coffee. The spice coffee is great also the arabica coffee is stronger, like the hansa coffee.
SSS
OMG……Island Coffee!!!!!! My favourite is the Spiced Coffee, and it simply gives an awesome feeling, especially on a nice cold rainy day. And the best part being, the packs are made available at almost every supermarket in SL at a very reasonable price….compared to all these overpriced cups served at all these ridiculously overrrated Hi-Fi spots……
d
Wow! such a negative review. couldn't you sugar-coat it a bit for this website?
C
Of course, I used to go to HFC too and used to have that ice coffee when waiting for the bus with my mum, after staying for after school activities :D
something most of us did, I think.
However now I find it a bit too sweet, but that's probably a consequence of age.
But who cares, nostalgia, I'd not hesitate to drink that ice coffee.