Where to drink coffee in Colombo, and when

Sri Lanka exports tea and drinks coffee, and Colombo's specialty scene has quietly become one of the better ones in South Asia.

The geography is simple. Colombo 7 and the roads running off Flower Road, Horton Place and Independence Avenue hold most of the specialty cafés — small rooms, single-origin beans, a barista who will talk about the roast if you want and leave you alone if you do not. Colombo 3 and 4 along Galle Road are denser and louder, with more chains and more of the all-day café format where coffee is the excuse and the food is the point.

Timing matters more here than in most cities because of the heat. Between eight and eleven in the morning the garden tables are the best seats in the city; by two in the afternoon they are unusable and the room with the strongest air conditioning wins. Cafés that are wonderful at nine can be unbearable at three, and it is entirely a question of which side of the building you are on.

On working from cafés: Colombo is generous about it in the morning and much less so from noon, when tables turn over for lunch. If you need three uninterrupted hours, take them early. Power sockets are the scarce resource, not wifi — most places have solid connections and about four plugs.

A good espresso is not hard to find here any more. A good espresso after four in the afternoon still is, because many of the best rooms close at five.