This New Tea Is The Perfect Gift For Doctor Who Fans

While my personal oeuvre leans towards the carbonated end of the caffeine spectrum, I live with a dedicated tea person. As such, I’ve been picking up a little high-class knowledge by osmosis. Slowly but surely, I’m starting to understand things like “brewing temperature”, “steep time”, and whatever the hell a tannin is. My amateur experience aside, the tea news that just crossed my desk is too important not to cover. Finally, official Doctor Who teas are available for sale.

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The American tea company Harney & Sons has released two officially licensed Doctor Who black tea blends in adorable themed tins. Although they’re not from the U.K., BBC Studios couldn’t have picked a better partner for this launch. Harney & Sons produces some of Sporked’s favorite peppermint and breakfast teas. (My in-house expert is one of their biggest fans; the Harney & Sons SoHo tasting room was a “must-visit” during our Valentine’s Day trip to New York City.) Harney & Sons is also a member of 1% for the Planet, meaning they donate 1% of all sales to vetted environmental causes. That feels extra relevant for this collaboration since “save the Earth” is the plot of most Doctor Who episodes.

Both teas contain 40–60 milligrams of caffeine per cup. Each tin contains 20 sachets; each sachet brews one 12 oz. cup. The tins are priced at $15.50 each, making them a budget-friendly gift for the Whovian in your life.

What do the Harney & Sons Doctor Who teas taste like?

“Somewhere inside the TARDIS, between a library with no ceiling and a swimming pool that keeps moving, there’s a kitchen. In that kitchen could be this tea. It tastes like milk and sugar were already stirred in by someone who knew just how you take it. The TARDIS always knows.”

TARDIS Tea, offered in a TARDIS-printed tin, is a “gently brisk” medium-bodied English Breakfast black tea. Thanks to the milk, sugar, and cream flavors in the blend, TARDIS Tea should drink like most people take their morning tea–no need to dirty a spoon. This tea leans sweeter for canonical reasons too; depending on the incarnation, The Doctor took their tea with anything from one to eight sugars.

“Gallifrey sits beneath twin suns, its sky burned orange and its fields of red grass stretching to the Mountains of Solace and Solitude. Mornings there must have been extraordinary.

A trip to the Citadel may be out of reach, but this is what a Time Lord could enjoy before a long day in the Capitol. A warm golden cup worth lingering over, even if time is already something you can bend.”

Packed in a red-and-gold tin straight from the Doctor’s homeworld, Gallifreyan Breakfast is a fruit-forward, medium-bodied black tea. Layered with natural honey, banana, and vanilla flavors, this breakfast tea has an unexpected fruity “twist” befitting Steven Moffat’s best episodes. (While the existence of bananas on Gallifrey isn’t established canon, The Doctor’s fondness for them spans multiple regenerations.)

What do you want to see from the Harney & Sons/Doctor Who partnership in the future? Let me know in the comments below. Adipose Marshmallow Tea feels too obvious…