Starter Kit. Idea 219 of 500. Cluster 10
Rare and aged Ceylon teas, sold at auction to collectors the way Pu-erh is
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
Find out from 3 estate managers whether they hold old stock from a notable year that was never sold, and buy a small quantity of each. Store it properly, taste it with a taster, and offer 10 sealed tins in an online sale to collectors of aged tea. The proof is the highest price reached and the names of the bidders.
- Who pays first
- A collector of aged teas who already pays high prices for vintage Pu-erh and wants a rare origin nobody else in the circle owns.
- What leaves today
- Ceylon tea is sold young at the auction as a commodity, so none of it earns the premium that age and rarity bring elsewhere.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Tea Board. Ask whether aged tea can be sold at a special auction, and how.
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask how stored tea can be tested to prove its age and condition.
Check before you spend
Whether stored tea stays safe to drink over years, and how its age and estate can be proved to a collector.
Find out these three numbers
- What do collectors abroad pay for rare aged teas?
- How much old stock do estates still hold from notable years?
- What does safe storage cost per kilo each year?
A comparison from the book
Geneva. Chapter Sixteen
"The Blue Belle of Asia sold in Geneva in 2014 for $17.3 million."
Rare things fetch the most where collectors gather and the paperwork is trusted.
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.