Coffee in Ella

Coffee in Ella is easiest to find on the main road through town, where many tourist cafes have espresso machines and serve flat whites, cappuccinos and iced coffees. Some use Sri Lankan-grown beans, others imported blends; ask if you are curious.

Garden cafes on the side lanes and hillside cafes with views often serve good coffee too, and are quieter for a slow morning. Cafes near the Nine Arch Bridge and the Little Adam's Peak trailhead usually offer coffee, though quality varies.

Quality varies from cafe to cafe and changes as staff come and go, so recent reviews and a glance at the machine are the best guides.

Coffee in Ella is also served in some guesthouses, where hosts may make a pot of locally grown coffee on request. It is worth asking, especially in smaller family guesthouses on the lanes outside town, where home gardens sometimes include a few coffee bushes.

Local coffee in Ella, served in small shops and homes, is usually sweet and milky, or instant. Some households still roast and grind their own beans, sometimes with spices, and serve it strong and sweet.

Tea is the everyday drink in Uva, and most locals drink it, milky and sweet, several times a day. Ordering coffee in a local shop may bring instant coffee with milk powder, which is worth trying once for the experience.

For a taste of Sri Lankan-grown beans, look for cafes that name their source or sell locally roasted coffee.

Coffee in Sri Lankan homes is often served to guests with a sweet snack, such as a piece of jaggery or a biscuit. Visitors invited into a home in the Ella area may be offered coffee or tea; accepting is polite, and sugar can be declined with a smile.

Coffee came before tea in the hills around Ella. In the 19th century, British planters cleared large areas of the hill country, including Uva, for coffee, and Ceylon became one of the world's major coffee producers.

In the 1870s and 1880s, coffee leaf rust, a fungal disease, swept through the plantations and destroyed them. Planters turned to tea, and within a few decades tea had replaced coffee across the hills. Many of the tea estates around Ella stand on former coffee land.

A few old coffee bushes and the occasional estate name still recall the coffee era.

Small-scale coffee growing survives in the Sri Lankan hills, mostly in home gardens and smallholdings, alongside spices and fruit. In recent years, interest in Sri Lankan specialty coffee has grown, and some roasters work with smallholders.

In Ella, a few cafes serve or sell Sri Lankan-grown coffee. Buying it supports small growers and makes a good souvenir. Lankan Stays & Trails can point coffee lovers towards cafes and shops that source locally.

Coffee from the Sri Lankan hills is usually grown at lower altitudes than Ella's tea, in mixed home gardens with pepper, cloves, bananas and jackfruit. These spice gardens are part of the rural landscape around Uva, and visiting one shows coffee in its everyday setting.

Ask for coffee without sugar in local shops, because it often comes sweetened by default. Ask for fresh milk rather than powdered if you prefer it.

For a cold drink, iced coffee is widely available in tourist cafes. For something local, try a cup of black Uva tea alongside your coffee and compare.