Today Sri Lanka is famous for its tea, but in the first half of the 1800s it was Ceylon coffee that was served across the world. No one knows when coffee first came to Sri Lanka, but Sir James Emerson Tennent in the 1800s noted, “As to coffee, although the plant had existed from time immemorial on the island (having probably been introduced by the Arabs), the natives were ignorant of the value of its berries, and only used its leaves to flavor their curries, and its flowers to decorate their temples.” Only after the arrival of the Dutch, were attempts made to cultivate coffee as a commercial speculation. Today, Sri Lankan coffee is making a comeback. Visit a Sri Lanka-based specialty coffee house that is processing, roasting and exporting coffee. Located in the Nuwara Eliya town, the boutique coffee house now has many fans worldwide and has been described by coffee tasters as smooth, chocolaty, and rich – Sri Lanka’s first gourmet coffee in over 150 years.