When we first opened PALM in 2019, one of the things we were quite determined about was our coffee. We wanted it to be GOOD, STRONG COFFEE, none of that middle-of-the-road hotel coffee, and for it to be grown and roasted in Sri Lanka. It just didn't make sense to us to import coffee from around the world when we knew there was excellent coffee being grown right here on the island.
After quite a bit of searching, we came across Tusker Coffee. And seven years later, we're still serving their coffee every morning, day in and day out, at PALM.
A lot has happened in those seven years. We've been through COVID, the fuel crisis, floods and all the other challenges that have impacted coffee harvests and running small businesses in Sri Lanka. Through it all, we've kept working together, and it's one of those relationships that has become a lovely part of PALM's story.
What makes Tusker particularly special to us is how much care goes into what they do. They're a small producer, working with only a handful of cafés because there simply isn't enough coffee to go around. We're very lucky to be one of them.
Sri Lanka actually has a fascinating coffee history. Long before tea became the island's most famous export, coffee was a major crop here.
Back in the 1830s, pioneering coffee planters brought arabica varieties to Ceylon from places as far away as Ethiopia, Jamaica and the Caribbean. Some of the plants growing on Tusker's Avaagama Farm today are descendants of those original introductions.
Among them are Typica, Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon, all varieties of pure arabica coffee. The Typica growing on the farm, for example, can trace its roots back to Jamaica's Blue Mountains.
We love the idea that the coffee we're drinking today has a connection to the island's agricultural history going back nearly 200 years.
Tusker's coffee comes from the Uva highlands, where arabica grows at around 4,500 feet above sea level.
Their coffee is a blend of beans prepared using three different methods: natural, honey and washed processing. Each brings something different to the final cup, before the beans are roasted in small batches here in Sri Lanka.
But there's much more to their story than producing a good cup of coffee.
Through Avaagama Farm, they're helping to build a better future for Sri Lankan arabica. They grow seedlings in their own nurseries and share them with small-scale farmers, teach better growing and harvesting practices, and invest in the facilities needed to process coffee properly.
They're also doing fascinating work to preserve and develop different arabica varieties, including tracing the origins of plants that have been growing on the island for generations.
Avaagama Farm is part of the Specialty Coffee Association and the international permaculture community. It's patient, hands-on work, and a real commitment to improving the quality of Sri Lankan coffee for the long term.
We love working with people who genuinely care about what they produce, where it comes from and the people involved along the way. Tusker is very much one of those businesses.
So the next time you're having your morning coffee at PALM, there's a little more to it than you might think. It's grown in the Sri Lankan hills, roasted in small batches and made by people we've been proud to work with since the very beginning.
