Single-estate teas sold direct to consumers abroad by subscription, with the estate's story

A first step

Ask the manager of one upcountry estate whether you can buy 20 small packs of a single picking at the factory-gate price. Photograph the estate, write 150 words on its story, and offer a 3-month subscription to 20 friends and colleagues abroad at a price that covers postage and a margin. The proof is how many pay for the second month without being asked.

Who pays first

A tea drinker abroad who already pays for speciality coffee by origin and would pay the same way for a named estate delivered monthly.

What leaves today

The estate's tea leaves as a lot at the Colombo auction and is blended under a foreign name, so the story and the retail margin are both sold abroad.

The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.

The test

Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?

The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.

In the book

• Ch. ElevenThe Mechanisms
  The auction and every step after it
• Ch. TwoAn Island Nobody Has Counted
  Tea whose name the world has known for 200 years

More from cluster 10

• 202A tea sommelier course in Nuwara Eliya, certified, for the hotel trade of the world
• 203Tea tasting rooms in Kandy, Ella and Colombo run like wine bars
• 204Cold-brew and sparkling Ceylon tea in cans for the Gulf and Asia
• 205Matcha-style ground green tea from the upcountry, for cafés
• 206Tea cosmetics: creams and serums with a named estate's extract
• 207A picking-and-processing day at a factory sold as an experience, with your own kilo at the end

All 20 ideas in this cluster