Birmingham grocer John Sumner was looking for a speciality product line at the turn of the 20th Century, and in 1903 launched Typhoo Tipps, claimed to be the first packaged tea in the UK. Typhoo was derived from part of the Chinese word for 'doctor'; Tipps was a misspelling of 'tips', meant to be the broken edges of leaves, rather than the whole leaf. The argument was that the whole leaf, with stalk, had too much tannin and thus was indigestible. Of course, there were already broken bits of leaves around, previously known as 'fannings', and as such, not previously highly-rated... win-win for Mr Sumner.
Typhoo is now packaged in Moreton; here's a look inside the Digbeth warehouse, filmed in 2021.
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