Starter Kit. Idea 205 of 500. Cluster 10
Matcha-style ground green tea from the upcountry, for cafés
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
Grind a small quantity of upcountry green tea to a fine powder, pack 10 sample pouches, and take them to the owners of 10 cafés that already sell matcha lattes. Ask them to make one and tell you, honestly, how it compares and what they would pay per kilo. The proof is a price per kilo and one café willing to take a trial order.
- Who pays first
- A café owner who already sells matcha drinks and would switch part of the menu to a traceable, different green tea if the price and colour work.
- What leaves today
- Green tea from the upcountry is sold as leaf at leaf prices, while the café trade pays far more for ground tea from other countries.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Tea Board. Ask whether ground green tea for export needs approval as a tea product.
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask which standard applies to powdered tea sold to cafés.
Check before you spend
Whether your grinding room meets food rules, and whether the powder needs testing for residues before a café abroad will buy it.
Find out these three numbers
- What do cafés pay per kilo for the ground tea they use now?
- What does grinding a kilo finely cost you?
- How many cafés would switch after trying a sample?
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.