Idea 224 of 500. Cluster 11: Cinnamon and the spice garden
Cinnamon-infused honey, sugar and salt as a range
The mechanism, from the book
The imitation out-earns the original. Vietnam earns more from cassia than Sri Lanka does from true cinnamon, because the cassia arrives on the shelf as a product and the cinnamon arrives at the port as a bale.
Every idea in cluster 11 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Infuse small batches of honey, sugar and salt with true cinnamon in your kitchen, jar 20 of each, and take them to a weekend market and 3 delicatessens. Ask the owners which one they would stock and at what price. The proof is the product that sells out and a stockist's first order.
- Who pays first
- A delicatessen or gift shop owner who wants a local product range with a story that tourists and residents will both buy.
- What leaves today
- The cinnamon that flavours honey and salt abroad is bought as raw spice, and the finished range, with its margin, is made elsewhere.
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. FourThe Same Failure, Four Times
Why cassia out-earns true cinnamon - Ch. ElevenThe Mechanisms
The single desk that ends undercutting and funds brand and quality
More from cluster 11
- 221Cinnamon quills in retail packs with the grade printed, since almost no consumer knows the grades exist
- 222Cinnamon sticks as a branded gift, tied and boxed, sold at every airport in the world where we have a shop
- 223Cinnamon-leaf and bark oils bottled for the aromatherapy trade under a Sri Lankan name
- 225A "true cinnamon" education campaign run by producers, aimed at bakers and chefs abroad
- 226Cinnamon farm stays in the south-west, where the peeling is the show
- 227Peeler training schools, since the skill is disappearing and it is the whole value
Idea 224 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.