How this fraudster sold fake Scottish tea to the rich & famous

21 snips

Mar 23, 2026

Jaega Wise, British beer sommelier, broadcaster and food journalist, unpacks the wild Scottish tea scandal. She recounts how a charming fraudster fooled media and luxury brands. The conversation covers why Scotland sounded plausible, how taste and prestige helped sell the story, and the scientific testing that ultimately exposed the lie.

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ANECDOTE

How Tam O'Bran Sold Scottish Tea To Luxury Buyers

Tam O'Bran (real name Thomas Robinson) built fame by claiming to grow tea in the Scottish Highlands and sold to luxury buyers.
He repeatedly avoided showing production, staging visits and interviews to maintain the illusion until scrutiny grew.

INSIGHT

Why Simple 'Because' Explanations Boost Believability

A meaningless structural cue like 'because' makes claims feel credible by triggering automatic compliance.
Phil Agnew cites Langer's Xerox experiment where a placebo reason raised compliance from 60% to 93% even though the reason added no real information.

ANECDOTE

Tasting Scottish White Tea Canettos Gold

Jaega Wise blind-tasted a Scottish white tea called Canettos Gold and identified distinct fruity, floral notes and golden-orange colour.
The tea was unique yet still plausible, which helped obscure provenance questions during the scandal.

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In 2015, the media became obsessed with one man’s attempts to grow tea in the Scottish Highlands.

The BBC profiled him on the One Show. Radio reporters flocked to interview him. Even the Chinese national news agency reported his work.

Tam O’Braan (as he was then known) was the first to ever sell Scottish tea, and the press went wild.

Fornum and Mason bought his leaves. The Dorchester created a new Scottish tea-tasting menu. Barack Obama reportedly tried his tea, and the Queen loved it.

Tam’s business started bringing in hundreds of thousands of pounds. But soon his lies began to unravel.

Today, with Jaega Wise, we tell the story of the Scottish tea scandal. We explain how Tam O’Brann fooled the world and the psychology behind why so many customers believed him.

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Listen to the BBC Food Program’s show on the scandal: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002mn01

Learn more about Jaega: https://www.jaegawise.com/

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Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew/

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Today’s sources:

Koschate-Fischer, N., Diamantopoulos, A., & Oldenkotte, K. (2012). Are consumers really willing to pay more for a favorable country image? A study of country-of-origin effects on willingness to pay. Journal of International Marketing, 20(1), 19–41.

Langer, E. J., Blank, A., & Chanowitz, B. (1978). The mindlessness of ostensibly thoughtful action: The role of “placebic” information in interpersonal interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36(6), 635–642.

Mackie, D. M., Worth, L. T., & Asuncion, A. G. (1990). Processing of persuasive in-group messages. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58(5), 812–822.

Maier, L., Schreier, M., Baccarella, C. V., & Voigt, K.-I. (2023). University knowledge inside: How and when university–industry collaborations make new products more attractive to consumers. Journal of Marketing.

Peterson, R. A., Kim, Y., & Jeong, J. (2019). Out-of-stock, sold out, or unavailable? Framing a product outage in online retailing. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice.