Typhoo Tea: A Brief History

Typhoo is one of those proper British tea names everyone recognizes: the bright red box, the bold everyday flavour, and a name that sounds nothing like the tea inside it.

But there's more to Typhoo than the red box. The name has a surprising origin, and like a lot of century-old British brands, the company behind it has changed hands many times, including fairly recently.

Here's the full story: what Typhoo means, how it started in a Birmingham grocery shop in 1903, and who's behind it today.

Quick Guide to Typhoo Tea

What Does "Typhoo" Mean?

When John Sumner Jr. decided to sell his new tea under its own name, he settled on "Typhoo Tipps." Typhoo is adapted from a Mandarin word meaning "doctor," a nod to the tea's reputation for being gentle on the stomach. The "Tipps" referred to the small, edge-of-leaf tea particles, known as fannings, used in the blend. The double "p" in Tipps was actually a printing error on early packets, but it stuck around for years before eventually being dropped. The brand is still sometimes stylized today as Ty-Phoo, a nod to that original packaging.

The History of Typhoo Tea

John Sumner Jr. was born in Birmingham in 1856 into a family already in the grocery and pharmacy trade. By the turn of the 20th century he was running a grocery business that stocked everything from wine and spirits to a stout and cider bottling line, but he was looking for a specialty product to build the business around.

The answer came from his sister, who suffered from indigestion and found relief in a tea made from fannings rather than the large-leaf tea that was standard at the time. Sumner decided to package this tea under its own brand rather than sell it loose over the counter, an approach Typhoo is often credited as pioneering in Britain. To encourage trial, he gave away a jar of cream with every pound packet sold, and the tea's digestive reputation built a loyal following.

Demand grew beyond Sumner's own shop as other grocers started asking to stock it, and in 1905 he closed the grocery business entirely to focus on tea. Typhoo Tea Ltd was incorporated on July 29, 1905. The edge-of-leaf approach was also a practical advantage: it produced about 80 more cups per pound than ordinary tea and cut out the stalk material that caused indigestion in the first place.

By 1906, Typhoo was selling branded teapots and including collectible picture cards in its packets. Growth continued for decades, and by the mid-1960s the company was packing more than 80 million pounds of tea a year and exporting to 40 countries.

Who Owns Typhoo Today?

Like a lot of brands with century-long histories, Typhoo's ownership has changed many times. In the late 1960s it merged with Schweppes to form Typhoo Schweppes, and Cadbury joined a year later to create Cadbury Schweppes Typhoo. A 1986 management buyout spun the tea business off as Premier Brands, which expanded by acquiring other tea names including London Herb & Spice. Premier was bought by Hillsdown Holdings around 1989, then reorganized under the private equity firm Hicks Muse Tate and Furst in 1999, the same year Typhoo introduced the UK's first green tea blend, followed by Typhoo Fruit and Herb in 2004.

In October 2005, India's Apeejay Surrendra Group bought Typhoo and held it for 16 years. In 2021, the brand was sold again, this time to British private equity firm Zetland Capital, which in 2023 closed Typhoo's long-running Moreton factory in favor of outsourced production. By late 2024, financial pressure pushed the company into administration.

Typhoo was bought out of that administration in December 2024 by Supreme, a UK consumer goods group whose better-known brands include 88Vape, adding a 120-year-old tea name to a portfolio that's been expanding well beyond vaping into soft drinks and wellness products.

• 1968-1986: Schweppes, then Cadbury Schweppes
• 1986-1990: Premier Brands
• 1990-1999: Hillsdown Holdings / Premier Foods
• 1999-2005: Hicks Muse Tate and Furst
• 2005-2021: Apeejay Surrendra Group
• 2021-2024: Zetland Capital
• 2024-present: Supreme

Through all of that, the tea itself hasn't changed. The blends, the red box, and the everyday cup people know are the same ones that have been on shelves for years, ownership changes are a corporate story, not a sign the tea is different or going anywhere.

Where Is Typhoo Tea Made?

Typhoo's story started in Birmingham, where John Sumner ran his original grocery shop. For decades after that, large-scale production was centered at a major factory in Moreton, on the Wirral. That changed in 2023, when then-owner Zetland Capital announced the Moreton site would close in favor of outsourced production, ending more than 50 years of in-house manufacturing there. Since Supreme's 2024 acquisition, Typhoo is produced through third-party manufacturing rather than a single dedicated factory.

How to Brew Typhoo Tea

Typhoo is made for a proper everyday mug, so keep it simple.

1. Start with freshly drawn water.
2. Bring the water to a full boil.
3. Pour the water over the tea bag.
4. Brew for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on how strong you like it.
5. Add milk if desired.

If your tea tastes weak, let it brew a little longer. If it tastes too strong or bitter, shorten the brew time slightly or add milk sooner.

The Verdict

Typhoo is a classic British black tea with a story that goes back to 1903, when a Birmingham grocer turned a remedy for his sister's indigestion into a brand that's been a household name ever since. More than a century and several owners later, it's still the same bold, everyday cup: simple, dependable, and ready whenever the kettle goes on.