A culinary country box is now on offer from the TUD student start-up “World tasters”. At the moment, it’s all about China. On the occasion of the Chinese New Year, for 35 euro, you can have ten specialities typical of the country, including Oolong tea, seaweed crisps, wasabi peas, rice cakes, rice paper for spring rolls, a mix of typical Chinese spices and a Chinese moon cake. “When I was a child, I was always really excited when my father brought me back sweets or other specialities from his business trips,” says 22-year-old Bettina Kieselbach. The economics student at Technische Universität Dresden was reminded of this in March when visiting an international marketing fair, and she then set up her new firm with two fellow students. Since November, her customers have been able to purchase such a parcel containing exotic specialities for 35 euro.  We started in November with Brazil and our slogan was “Christmas under palm trees,” the Master’s student explains. They have already sold 50 boxes during the first few weeks, with half of these being subscriptions. Customers were acquired online and offline: “Many are from Dresden but they also come from all over Germany, especially from the countryside where the nearest international speciality shop is sometimes a bit hard to get to.” The parcel includes typical local recipes, film tips, a playlist and a hand-painted watercolour. Also included in the current parcel is a bamboo steam cooker “which you can use for preparing vegetables, meat and Chinese dough balls,” project supervisor Nicolas Mesa explains.

Their start-up found its first home in one of the four prefab containers, known as “Innovation Sheds”, in front of the Biology Building on Zellescher Weg. They are being supported by the TUD group ‘Innospire’, which sees itself as an “incubator” for such student ideas. “When it’s a matter of your own project, the students are much more motivated than if they are doing an internship with a company,” project leader Sebastian Schulz explains.  Only very few products and some packaging is stored in the container. “We want to keep our investment risk low,” says future economist Bettina Kieselbach. On the other hand, the marketing is already in full swing. There is already a YouTube film, a travel blog and appearances on Facebook and Instagram. The next country they are planning is Ireland. Quality is a very important criterion: in the preparation process, proper country evenings take place to try out specialities and recipes. There are no plans to repeat any theme.  “After all, there are almost 200 countries in the world,” Bettina Kieselbach says with a laugh.