Anyone for tee?

Ceylon Tee Co was founded in 2018 with a singular purpose: to use as many tea puns as possible in its marketing material.* Oh, and to brew up original, sustainable t-shirts inspired by the enigmatic, captivating island that is Sri Lanka – and support local charities along the way.

While finest Ceylon tea has been produced in the hills of the teardrop island since the early 19th century, the Ceylon tee is an altogether more novel proposition – though almost as difficult to pluck and package.

Just as fannings are swept from the factory floor and bagged up for dunking in your daily brew, so we want to take overstock fabric from Sri Lanka’s garment industry and transform it into shape tees – with the help of fairly paid seamstresses.

*An approach which backfired when the Registrar of Companies rejected our pun-based name request.

Dreaming greener than gotu kola.

Source surplus cotton from one of Sri Lanka’s many garment factories, engage skilled seamstresses to craft it into top-notch tees, then print it with witty, vibrant designs inspired by the island’s many quirks and idiosyncrasies. Sounds easy, right?

Turns out sustainable change is like maturing arrack: time-consuming. Since 2018, our mission to produce waste-free tees has run on island time. With the added setback of a global pandemic, it took a full four years before we finally had saleable shirts manufactured in Sri Lanka. Think defensive test innings, not swinging T20 sixes.

But after several lopsided samples, batches of blurry misprints and enough company paperwork to wrap a year’s supply of wade, we finally have overstock cotton tees made and available for sale in Sri Lanka. Is that a win as big as Lanka’s World Cup triumph in 1996? In our books, it’s not far off.

Our sustainable aims

Nuttier than murukku mixture.

Like the best cup of English Breakfast, the team behind the tees is a truly varied blend: two parts Scottish, one part Sri Lankan, one part Mauritian and two parts English. More than you could fit into any sachet and certainly loose a leaf or two.

Alas, it wasn’t over a good cuppa that the trio behind CTC hatched their tee-fuelled dreams. No, auspicious timing brought the tee-keen three together for a serendipitous Lion lager overlooking Colombo Cricket Club.

Friends from university and flatmates through lockdown, each now brings their own flavour to the proverbial pot. Chris contributes design, photography and copywriting flair, plus finely crumbed fish cutlets. Saskia does the needful with social media, marketing and making connections over tea (topics include Sri Lankan literature and the national cricket team’s starting XI, circa 2018). Fergus? Business development and brand rep, with a side-gig in organic cinnamon, a fierce carrom flick and an insatiable appetite for chocolate biscuit pudding.

From batchmates to batch-made tees.

Based between Sri Lanka and Scotland, together we are Ceylon Tee Co. With the help of a few friends and some fairly paid seamstresses, we dream of selling our tees at Sri Lanka’s next Test series, celebrating sales success with an ill-advised combination of Milo and arrack, and securing a questionable collaboration with Perera & Sons.

You won’t find our tees for sale in Pettah, but it’s a great place to wear them. You won’t find Chris readily joining the other two on a government bus, but he accepts that they are a very affordable means of transport. And you’ll never find out what (if anything) Fergus wears under his sarong.

If we were running for president, our mantra would be “Creativitee, sustainabilitee, positivitee.” If we were a tea, we’d be ginger: stimulating, good at digesting food and best taken with a dash of sugar. If we were a Sinhala phrase we’d be – what else? – aiyo!

It's tee time.

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