Starter Kit. Idea 211 of 500. Cluster 10
Blending workshops for Sri Lankans abroad in their own kitchens: a kit, a video, three estates in a box
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
Put together 10 kits by hand: 3 estate teas in small pouches, empty tins, a scoop and a card with blending ratios. Record a 5-minute video on your phone showing how to blend them. Offer the kit to Sri Lankan families you know in London, Melbourne or Toronto as a gift for a parent. The proof is 10 sold and how many ask for a refill.
- Who pays first
- A son or daughter abroad buying a gift for a parent who drinks tea every day and misses the hills they grew up near.
- What leaves today
- Sri Lankan homes abroad drink Ceylon tea blended and packed under foreign names, so the island loses the margin on its own people's daily cup.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Tea Board. Ask what approval small blending kits sent abroad need for the Ceylon logo.
- Sri Lanka Customs. Ask what paperwork small parcels of tea need when posted abroad.
Check before you spend
Whether the country you post to allows tea parcels without import paperwork, and which labels each pouch must carry.
Find out these three numbers
- What would a household abroad pay for a kit of several estates?
- What does posting one kit cost to your main city abroad?
- How many kit buyers come back for a second box?
A comparison from the book
Sri Lankans abroad. Appendix
"The single most valuable thing a Sri Lankan in Melbourne or Zurich can do"
Your first customers abroad are also your first reviewers, so ask them for both.
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.