The Cauldron celebrates 4 years of deeply grounded values and specialty coffee culture

The team behind The Cauldron

Pol rotti kottu with pan-fried chicken

Veggie loader rice with grilled halloumi

Char-grilled chicken with butter garlic rice and lime chili salt

On an artsy street in Colombo 6, sits an eclectic café that over the last three years has won the hearts of its patrons for being unique, service-oriented and serving some pretty awesome food and coffee. The brainchild of husband-wife duo Tharanga and Dush, The Cauldron celebrates its fourth year in operations this year.

Tharanga Kasadoruge has over 17 years’ experience both locally and internationally, before starting The Cauldron. With a deeply felt interest in the ‘science of coffee’, Tharanga believes that Sri Lanka has the potential to be returned to the once acclaimed position in world coffee production. Having spent considerable time with coffee, Tharanga is also among the few coffee professionals in Sri Lanka with specialised international training and qualifications in Specialty Coffee.

Dush on the other hand comes from a finance and marketing background. She has over 10 years of experience working in one of the largest finance companies in Sri Lanka, until she decided to engage full time as an entrepreneur. Complementing sets of skills make it an effective partnership between the duo. 

A mere thought of ‘what if’, became reality, with a lot of hard work, lots of passion and many sleepless hours. The initial ‘fear stage’ lasted almost a year as they struggled through many challenges including financials. Sheer unwavering determination and lots of love for all things good, a committed team and a bunch of amazing customers who by now had become friends helped to make it through the first year and the challenging times faced with due to the pandemic. 

Recording an amazing progress month on month as the laid back, Artsy vibe of the space, the unique menu and more importantly The Cauldron Team went viral mostly through word of mouth. The customer base grew at an overwhelming pace, and a whole new set of challenges came to light. In late 2019, the founders had to make a tough choice to lose substantial seating space from the lobby to make room for a new kitchen. Giving up ‘quantity for quality’ a new kitchen was created, and the team was expanded by large to maintain the promise of quality as unanticipated demand was experienced.  The intention was to create a space for dreamers and the big thinkers to feel inspired by the space to dream big and make the difficult decisions to action the dreams to become a reality, so it was always well beyond just to sell food and drinks.  Tough times were faced during the third year, including but not limited to the pandemic. Handled and managed all this with a supportive team, and all the “friends” of THE CAULDRON. The Cauldron now remains positively on an onward route on the fourth year with the team intact still producing those delicious dishes singlehandedly curated by Dush, including the unique pol roti kottu, umbalakade pol sambol and egg fried rice to name a few from the old food menu. The Cauldron also launched new creations to their menu with the Chilli Prawn Stir Fried Noodles made using a home-made chili paste without any preservatives or additives, char grilled chicken with butter garlic rice and lime chilli salt, veggie loader rice with grilled haloumi, and more. The new menu also includes some peculiar drinks as the Chocolate Mojito and Chili Hot Chocolate, along with the latest addition for those inquisitive, The Cauldron Cold Brew coffee range. The Cauldron also serves some of the best coffees in town, with a choice of seasonal single origin specialty coffees including home grown. 

The Cauldron that was founded by Tharanga and Dush with a small team of five, in 2020 attracted Chamara Munasinghe, a former professional market researcher and entrepreneur, now co-owner of Cauldron & Co. Ltd. 

“We are glad we found a business partner that understands and agrees with the core reasons for existence of The Cauldron, and because he supports us to continue the story we started”, Tharanga said. Trust, integrity, kindness, generosity, and compassion are traits inculcated in the humane service offering at Cauldron & Co. 

These traits are enhanced by a sense of professionalism enriched by technical knowhow. 

The latest cold brew range