Hansa Ceylon Coffee

Overview

Hansa Ceylon Coffee was started in the mid-1990s by Harm van Oudenhoven (Netherlands) and Lawrence Goldberg (Seattle) — Goldberg was working with a local NGO, van Oudenhoven on the Integrated Rural Development Project in Nuwara Eliya — with the conviction that good coffee could still be found on a tea-dominated island that had been the world's largest coffee exporter before the 1880s leaf-rust collapse. Almost three decades later, Hansa is Sri Lanka's first specialty coffee operation: a women-staffed roastery in the small Ragala hill town at over 1,600 metres, sourcing village coffee from forest gardens across the central highlands, with a Colombo café on Fife Road run by Goldberg's wife Shani Hulugalle.

Known for

• Sri Lanka's first specialty coffee operation — founded mid-1990s
• Roasts at 1,600+ metres in Ragala on a 50-year-old Indian-made roaster, women-staffed
• 100% Sri Lankan-grown — sources village coffee from forest gardens and shade-grown smallholders in the central highlands
• Colombo flagship café on Fife Road run by co-founder Lawrence Goldberg's wife Shani Hulugalle
• Pioneer of post-blight Sri Lankan coffee revival; supplies cafés including Barefoot in Colombo and hotels including St. Andrew's Nuwara Eliya

Why it matters

Ceylon was the world's largest coffee exporter in 1870 before leaf-rust wiped the industry out by the 1880s and producers shifted to tea. Hansa is the operation that put coffee back on the island as a specialty crop a century later, and remains the reference point that newer Sri Lankan specialty roasters (Tusker, Whight & Co., Soul, Damn Fine, Coffee Beans Specialty) credit as the pioneer.

Production

destoning

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head roaster

Lawrence Goldberg

color sorting

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roaster machine

50-year-old Indian-made drum roaster

filter equipment

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cupping frequency

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roastery location

Ragala, Nuwara Eliya hill country, Sri Lanka (1,600+ metres)

espresso equipment

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annual volume tonnes

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Café

Fife Road, Colombo

Sources

• https://hansaceylon.com/
• https://hansaceylon.com/hansa-coffee
• https://seanoconn.org/hansa-coffee/
• https://perfectdailygrind.com/2015/12/specialty-coffee-in-sri-lanka-from-production-to-consumption/
• https://www.thewaytocoffee.com/origin-stories-sri-lanka/
• https://freshcup.com/ceylon-coffee/