Idea 204 of 500. Cluster 10: Tea, beyond the auction
Cold-brew and sparkling Ceylon tea in cans for the Gulf and Asia
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.
Every idea in cluster 10 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Brew a small batch of cold-brew Ceylon tea and a sparkling version in your kitchen, bottle 30 of each, and give them to 5 people you know who have lived in the Gulf. Ask which one they would buy there and at what price, then ask one of them to show a sample to a shop owner they know. The proof is a preferred recipe and one shop owner's price.
- Who pays first
- A convenience shop or café owner in the Gulf with Sri Lankan customers who wants a chilled tea drink that is not another imported soda.
- What leaves today
- The Gulf and Asia buy canned tea drinks made by foreign bottlers from blended leaf, while the island sells its own tea as a lot, unbottled.
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
- 201Single-estate teas sold direct to consumers abroad by subscription, with the estate's story
- 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
- 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
Idea 204 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.