Starter Kit. Idea 203 of 500. Cluster 10
Tea tasting rooms in Kandy, Ella and Colombo run like wine bars
The mechanism, from the book
The Colombo auction sells tea by the lot to a buyer who blends it under his own name. Every step after the auction is where the money is, and every step can be done here by somebody who is not a plantation company.
The first step
Hire a table in a café in Kandy, Ella or Colombo for one evening and run a paid tasting of 5 estate teas, poured in flights like wine, with a card for each. Charge a ticket, offer the owner a share, and count how many guests buy a pack on the way out. The proof is tickets sold, packs sold and whether the owner asks you back.
- Who pays first
- A visitor in Kandy, Ella or Colombo looking for an evening out who has drunk the tea all week and never been told what it is.
- What leaves today
- Visitors leave the tea country having drunk it without learning it, so at home they buy the blended brand instead of the estate they stood on.
Ask first
- the local council (Municipal Council, Urban Council or Pradeshiya Sabha). Ask what licence a tasting room serving tea and light food needs.
- the area Medical Officer of Health. Ask what the premises must show before serving tea to the public.
Check before you spend
Whether your premises need a trade licence and food approval, and whether each estate agrees to be named on the menu.
Find out these three numbers
- What would a visitor pay for a flight of estate teas?
- How many tickets sell on a slow weeknight?
- What does each estate charge per kilo for small orders?
A comparison from the book
Europe. Chapter Five
"In Europe people queue to watch glass being blown"
People pay to watch and taste a skill, then buy the thing they tasted.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.