Idea 213 of 500. Cluster 10: Tea, beyond the auction
A Ceylon tea museum with a shop that sells every estate, not one company's
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
Draft a list of 20 estates whose teas you would stock, then ask 5 estate managers whether they would supply a shop that sells every estate side by side at a fair margin. At the same time, ask a hotel or visitor centre in the hills whether it would lend a room for a trial weekend exhibition. The proof is 5 supply agreements in principle and a room.
- Who pays first
- A visitor to the hills who has seen one company's factory and wants to taste and buy across the whole island in one place.
- What leaves today
- Visitors see tea through one company's shop, so the story of Ceylon tea as a whole, and the sale of most estates' teas, never reaches them.
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
- 204Cold-brew and sparkling Ceylon tea in cans for the Gulf and Asia
- 205Matcha-style ground green tea from the upcountry, for cafés
- 206Tea cosmetics: creams and serums with a named estate's extract
Idea 213 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.