Idea 220 of 500. Cluster 10: Tea, beyond the auction
A tea-quality laboratory certifying estate origin, so that "Ceylon" on a packet in Hamburg can be checked
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
Email 5 tea importers or packers abroad, through their public contact details, with one question: would they pay to have a sample tested and certified as genuine single-origin Ceylon, and how much. Then ask a university food science department whether it could run the test. The proof is a price per sample from a buyer and a laboratory willing to try.
- Who pays first
- A tea packer abroad whose customers are asking whether Ceylon on the packet is true, and who needs a certificate to prove it.
- What leaves today
- Ceylon tea is blended abroad and the name is used with no check, so the premium the name carries can be claimed by anyone.
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 220 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.