Island Coffee: Sri Lankan Ground and Flavoured Coffee

Island Coffee

Island Coffee is a Sri Lankan coffee house on Galle Road in Bambalapitiya, Colombo. Its gold foil packets with the blue coffee pot label carry the words "Since 1964", and the company says it was the first in Sri Lanka to sell flavoured coffee. Nearly everything is a fine ground powder, made to stand in a cup or a pot and sold in sizes from 50g.

Plain coffee. The signature Robusta powder comes in 50g, 100g and 200g packets, a strong cup that holds up under milk and sugar.

Flavoured coffee. The same fine grind with one flavour added: Vanilla, Caramel, Almond, Mint, Cinnamon, Cardamom and Ginger.

Spiced blends. Two recipes print their ingredients on the front of the pack. Spiced Coffee, the Persian Blend, has ginger, cardamom, cloves, coriander and cinnamon. Jaffna Coffee, the northern blend, has coriander, ginger, cumin seeds and caramel.

Arabica. The Special Arabica Blend comes in 250g jars, as fine powder or as filter grind for coffee machines, and in a black 200g foil bag.