Idea 218 of 500. Cluster 10: Tea, beyond the auction
Tea-house franchising abroad: one format, Sri Lankan-owned, in the cities where Sri Lankans abroad live
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
Choose one city abroad you know well and spend a weekend running a tea stall at a Sri Lankan community event there, with 5 estate teas and a short menu of snacks. Record what sells, the average spend and how many people ask where the shop is. The proof is a weekend's takings and a list of people who want to know when it opens.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan family abroad who wants a place to take friends for proper tea and short eats, and currently has nowhere to go.
- What leaves today
- Tea houses abroad sell Ceylon tea under other nations' formats and names, so the café margin and the brand of the island's own drink are both lost.
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 218 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.