Idea 225 of 500. Cluster 11: Cinnamon and the spice garden
A "true cinnamon" education campaign run by producers, aimed at bakers and chefs abroad
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
Film a 2-minute video on your phone comparing true cinnamon and cassia side by side: the quill, the colour, the smell, the taste in a bun. Send it with a small sample pack to 20 bakers and chefs abroad you can reach through Sri Lankan friends abroad or online groups. Ask each whether they would switch and what they would pay. The proof is a list of those who ask to order.
- Who pays first
- A baker or chef abroad who takes ingredients seriously, had no idea there were two cinnamons, and will pay for the real one once shown.
- What leaves today
- The world's kitchens use cassia because nobody told them the difference, so the imitation out-earns the original on shelves everywhere.
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
- 224Cinnamon-infused honey, sugar and salt as a range
- 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 225 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.