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Mel’s Tea Café

Mar 19 2014.

Tucked away in a quiet corner of Cotta Road lies a new café named Mel’s Tea Café with its main focus on serving sandwiches, salads, pastries, cakes and of course teas, and tea-based beverages. The café has been open for a little over a month already, and the Food Factor met with Niraj de Mel, owner of the café, for a brief chat.

Niraj has been working in Sri Lanka’s tea industry, specifically the tea export sector for the past 36 years and it’s been a dream of his to open a tea café. He runs the cafe along with the rest of his family, who assist him with daily operations. Mel’s Tea Café serves a range of salads which are more suited for a light lunch, and you can choose from the Waldorf Salad, Shrimp Salad or the Chicken and Grape Salad. Breakfasts at the café are rather rustic and simple and include kiribath and pol roti with accompaniments such as lunu miris and fried eggs. “We do a typical Sri Lankan breakfast to go with a cup of plain tea, because who can say no to a hearty meal like that?” said Niraj.

Come late afternoon, you can enjoy pastries, savouries and freshly baked cake at the café. Pair your snack with flavoured iced tea, or hot if you wish. The flavours range from ginger to mint to cinnamon or even green tea. The peach iced tea is quite lovely and you can choose from other flavours such as lemon, mint, cinnamon and green. The tea fizz range includes a flavourful lemon tea fizz, while the other items on the beverage section feature tea mocktails, tea shakes and regular plain tea, milk tea and condensed milk tea. The iced teas and hot teas are served without added sugar, and you can request for sugar syrup.

High tea arrangements can also be made, in addition to renting the private lounge for small events or meetings. Mel’s Tea Café is located at 98/1, Cotta Road, Colombo 08 and they are open from Monday to Saturday from 7AM-8PM, with the exception of Poya days.