Idea 229 of 500. Cluster 11: Cinnamon and the spice garden
A spice-trail tourism route from Galle to Matale with tastings, mapped and marketed as one product
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
Drive from Galle to Matale over 2 days and stop at every spice garden, processor and kitchen along the way. Ask each owner whether they would host a tasting for a small group at a set fee per head. Draw the route on one page with the stops and times, and offer it to 3 tour operators. The proof is a map of willing hosts and a first booking.
- Who pays first
- A tour operator who sells the island as a spice island and has no single, planned route that proves it on the ground.
- What leaves today
- Spice gardens are visited one at a time and many feel like sales stops, so the island's spice story is never sold as one trustworthy product.
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
- 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
Idea 229 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.