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By Madushka Balasuriya
In recent years the number of cafés and restaurants delivering premium quality desserts has grown exponentially, yet paradoxically the number of cafés dedicated purely to desserts remains strikingly low. In fact, there’s just the one, Hyve. And this past month, on 22 October, it celebrated its one year anniversary.
To mark the occasion, we at Daily FT took a journey down to Hyve Dessert Bar in Colombo 5 to reacquaint ourselves with their array of goodies. We also caught up with Hyve Founder and Director Chanika Mallawarachchi - while it’s a family-run business, she overlooks day-to-day operations - who opened up on some of the challenges she faced in her first year.
“The most difficult thing was definitely getting the place up and running, and making sure everything was exactly the way I wanted it to be,” she says.
That effort looks to have paid off, as the space exudes a sense of welcoming. With an abundance of natural light pouring through the large glass panel windows, entering Hyve makes you want to just sit down with a book and while the day away. To make the activity even more feasible, there’s even a small dedicated kids area, replete with books and toys to keep your little one busy while mommy and daddy enjoy a sugary pick-me-up.
On to the food items, what is most impressive about Hyve is their consistency. Since launch, patrons can rest assured that each time they have a particular sweet treat, it’s going to taste exactly the same. For Chanika, this flavour guarantee was only achievable through trial and error. “A lot of the dishes will take several attempts to perfect. And with each iteration I’ll try and add something more to it, to give that little bit extra.”
Indeed, this is probably what makes Hyve’s desserts so special - each one has something more in it to set it apart from what you might traditionally expect. “All my desserts have an element of a mousse or a cheesecake or a fruit compote or something like that. I put different things together and make them. For example, for the Strawberry Bavarian Sponge Cake there’s a layer of jelly, then a sponge cake, then a cream. And the jelly is made from frozen strawberries.”
For a lot of cooks and bakers specialising in desserts, ingredients are a key part of their creations, a lot of which are imported. This is quite surprisingly not the case with Hyve, where nearly all their ingredients are sourced from local suppliers. A fact which really does make Chanika’s creations all the more impressive.
This also has the added effect of making Hyve an incredible value prospect, with their most expensive dessert item coming in at Rs. 650 nett, which is the positively exquisite Kahlua Cheesecake.
All this put together, however, would count for naught if Hyve didn’t deliver on flavour, but ever since their launch, it’s just been one hit after the next. On account of it being their anniversary, we started of by trying their two anniversary specials, the Swiss Meringue Tart (Rs. 450) and the Strawberry Bavarian Cream Sponge (Rs. 500).
In many ways these two dishes really encapsulate what Hyve is about. The rich chocolate and coffee hits of the tart offer bold, heavy flavours - flavours that make you want to have a lie down afterwards, but in a good way.
The Bavarian sponge meanwhile is lighter, with that lovely layer of jelly in the middle providing an added bit of freshness that you just don’t want to end. It’s also not too sweet, which this reviewer was definitely a fan of.
Apart from these, you have the Hyve classics, such as the Chocolate Biscuit Pudding (Rs. 450) and the Blazed Butter Slice (Rs. 500). Long-time favourites, we knew what we were getting into when we ordered these, and unsurprisingly they did not disappoint; the moisture in the Blazed Butter Slice, and the creaminess of the chocolate in the pudding, as decadent as always.
And now you can get Hyve’s goodies for all your events, with them expanding their catering service. Chanika and her team specialise in mini-versions of their desserts, which retain all of the flavour but with the added convenience of being able to pop one on your mouth while walking by. “We do things such as strawberry tarts, mousse cups, chocolate ganache, mini cupcakes etc. Really anything that you see here can be made a miniature version of.”
In addition to this, they also do custom cakes, and with the holiday season coming up, Hyve is also now open for pre-orders on their assortment of Christmas goodies.
For more information you can contact Hyve on 077 454 5960, or visit their outlet at 61 Thimbirigasyaya Road, Colombo 5.
Pix by Sameera Wijesinghe
