So, counterfeit tea is big business according to news sources. It doesn’t get mentioned much. A google search found a BBC News article from 2006 and I tracked down a mention in the Guardian in 2006, but other than that it’s a silent industry.

Why did I decide to look at this now?

Yesterday I bought a box of Typhoo tea bags from a national frozen food chain, when I got home and opened the box I was a little surprised. The foil packs were plain silver - no print on them like those on this photo. I thought no more about it and opened a pack to make a cup of tea.

Then it struck me that the actual tea bags were not branded (again see the photo) with the Typhoo logo. How strange I thought. Could they be fake? Surely not, they’re tea bags! Sure a £20 note without the branding featrues would be a fake - but that’s because they’re security features. Could it be that Typhoo use branding as a security feature on their bags?

So, how else could I check. It had to be the sniff test. You see, a Typhoo tea bag has a really vivid scent. In a blind smell test I could tell them apart from other brands easily. The very last bag from my previous packet - about a fortnight old - still had that scent. The new tea bags - hardly a scent at all and what was there wasn’t Typhoo.

Those news reports say that counterfeit tea bags have been known to contain anything from tea to the dust swept up off the floor. So, for now at least, those bags are back in the box at the back of a cupboard and will stay there. I’ll buy some real one’s from another store later. I wonder what reply I’ll get from Trading Standards?