Starter Kit. Idea 204 of 500. Cluster 10
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.
The 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.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Tea Board. Ask what approval a ready-to-drink tea needs to carry the Ceylon name abroad.
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask which standard applies to canned tea drinks.
Check before you spend
Whether the canning partner's plant meets the food rules of the Gulf country you sell to, and what shelf life your drink must prove.
Find out these three numbers
- What does a can of iced tea sell for in a Gulf supermarket?
- What is the smallest run a canner here will fill?
- How long does the drink taste right after canning?
A comparison from the book
A Sri Lankan tea company. Chapter Four
"one Sri Lankan company that does its own blending and branding and packing says it gets more than 3 times the national average export price"
Finishing and branding tea on the island is already proven to earn far more than bulk.
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.