Top 10 Best Sellers of 2020

Well, it turns out 2020 wasn’t the “tea” namesake year we had high hopes for. While we all struggled through the challenges that last year presented, we know one thing’s for sure: we all turned to a cup of tea for moments of peace and comfort.

As always, we’re so grateful to our loyal customers for being such fans of our teas. Your support, especially in 2020, is deeply appreciated. Curious about what teas other Harney customers can’t live without? We thought you might be, so here’s our list of the top 10 best sellers of 2020 (along with a list of Harney newbies that made their debut last year). While there are some teas that just refuse to give up their seats, there are some new names in the top 10. Maybe you helped put them there!

#10. Dragon Pearl Jasmine

Jasmine tea is so incredibly special to begin with, from how it’s made to how it tastes, but then when you add in the fact that these little balls of tea are hand-rolled by ladies in Fujian, China… well, it doesn’t get a whole lot more special than that. It’s one pearl of a tea.  Read about how jasmine tea is made and what makes it so unique.

#9. Black Cask Bourbon

If sales of alcohol soared in 2020 (and they did), it’s no wonder the popularity of all things alcohol-related helped propel this tea into the top 10. With all of the flavor of a fine bourbon but none of the pesky side effects, this smoky vanilla and caramel tea became a new quarantine fave.

#8. Peach Fresh Brew Iced Tea

Our iced teas really took off this summer, with Peach topping the list as the coolest of the bunch. Again, with more people staying at home and being outdoors, this refreshing beverage was clearly the pick of the iced tea crop. With its debut on the top 10 list, it’s not just iced tea… it’s clearly  nice tea!

#7. Indigo Punch

When you drink Indigo Punch, “having the blues” takes on a whole different meaning. This vibrant violet-blue tea is a crowd-pleaser not only for its beautiful color, but for its crisp, fruity flavors. When you want to dazzle your friends with something truly different, turn to Indigo Punch.

#6. Japanese Sencha

Who “sencha” to the top 10 list, Japanese Sencha? Harney customers, that’s who! This beautiful, classic green tea was one of John Harney’s everyday go-to teas. If it was good enough for our founder to drink every day, you know it’s special tea. We mean, it’s on the top 10 list, so duh.

#5. Victorian London Fog

A perennial favorite, did you know that Victorian London Fog was created by a customer in one of our annual tea blend contests? The inclusion of lavender and vanilla was a stroke of genius in our book (and clearly our customers’ book as well). No brain fog was happening when that blend was cooked up, gov’na!

#4. English Breakfast

The adopted national beverage of the United Kingdom, English Breakfast is a standout representation of that nation’s love of a cuppa. An excellent black tea that can handle all the milk and sugar you want to throw at it. Or in it. Your choice.

#3. Earl Grey Supreme

We took the classic Earl Grey and made it even better by adding silver tips white tea to the signature black tea and bergamot that defines an Earl Grey. It makes for a supreme sip that even a certain Star Trek captain would order up...hot. (That’s for all you Captain Picard fans, you know you’re smiling right now!)

#2. Paris

Is our Paris tea perpetually popular in every possible way?  Mais oui! If you haven’t tried it, may we (you see what we did there) introduce you to this lovely black tea blended with vanilla, caramel, and bergamot? In a year when many of us canceled travel plans and stayed home, this delicious tea transported us to bliss, if not Paris.

#1. Hot Cinnamon Spice

There’s a reason this tea tops the list of customer must-haves/rave-about products we make. That reason: IT’S SOOOOO GOOD! Yes, it’s sweet. No, we don’t add sugar. Yes, you can name your cat after it. No, we won’t let you ever run out of it. If you haven’t tried HCS, order some and find out why this tea will help any year -- even 2020 -- feel a little bit better.

If our top 10 list contains several of your own tried-and-true teas, we’d like to introduce you to some blends that we brought to market in 2020. They were definitely bright spots in a murky year.

Gingerbread Festival. While not as adorable as gingerbread people (although the tin is darn nice), this tea is every bit as tasty as a gingerbread cookie. Seriously, this is a holiday in a cup and a gingerbread party in your mouth. It flew off our shelves this past holiday season and made our warehouse smell even better than it already does. Now, where are the cookies?

Bee’s Knees. The winner of this year’s tea blending contest, this customer-created concoction is a nod to the Roaring Twenteas, as we like to say. Using the cocktail of the same name as inspiration, this white tea has gin flavor along with juniper berries, lemon peel, honey, and lemon flavors. Whip out your jazz hands and Charleston moves for the full experience!

Mind Your Body Wellness Blends. If ever there was a year to debut teas and herbs that enhance your wellness routine, 2020 was certainly it! With ingredients like turmeric, avocado, Chaga mushrooms, ginger, and more, we were excited to make these available to our customers, and even more pleased by their reactions. Start 2021 off with some of these beneficial, healthy items in your pantry.

Chaga Wonder and  Chaga Mushroom. Keeping on our holistically healthy theme, we trotted out these two funguys! Chaga mushrooms are adaptogens that provide antioxidants and help boost immunity. We combined Chaga Wonder with other awesome ingredients like ashwagandha root, chamomile, coconut, hemp, and more, while Chaga Mushroom is simply that: Chaga mushroom powder you add water to, much like matcha. If trying new things is on your list of new year’s resolutions, consider adding Chaga mushroom tea. We think you might be surprised.

Shakespeare Globe. To tea, or not to tea? To tea, of course! While this blend isn’t named after Hamlet, it is in honor of the Bard and is named A Midsummer Night’s Tea. The tin, whose design recreates the Elizabethan crosshatch style of the Globe Theater that celebrates all things Shakespeare, contains a complex black tea with fruit flavors, spice, and flowers. As the Bard said, “A cup of tea! A cup of tea! My kingdom for a cup of tea!” Or something like that.

Tropical Mango Fresh Brew Iced Tea. When whisking yourself away to a tropical paradise wasn’t possible during a pandemic, we brought the islands to you with this fun and fruity iced tea. It might be January, but it’s hot somewhere. Break out the flip flops, put on a little Marley, and escape.

We weren’t just busy crankin’ out new teas at the Harney warehouse. Over at our sister company, The Hemp Division, some inspired brainstorming resulted in these new brews last year.

Sleep. Regular, quality sleep is integral to being healthy. We developed Sleep with 25mg of our all-natural hemp, grown by us in upstate New York, along with other sleep-friendly ingredients like holy basil, coconut, and more. If sleep eludes you, a cuppa this caffeine-free herbal tea before bedtime could be just what the Sandman ordered.

Boom. After you awake refreshed from that great night’s sleep, start your day with a Boom! We took black tea, added chocolate, coconut, vanilla flavor, marigold petals, and hemp flowers, leaves, and extract to get your day off to a wonderful start.

Focus. Our customers tell us that Focus helps them do just that: focus on the task at hand while providing a sense of calm and relaxation at the same time. This tea is a magical combination of yerba mate, yaupon, mint, hemp, and more for a straight-from-nature cup of goodness.

And that’s our recap of our bestsellers and newcomers from 2020. We’re excited to see what 2021 brings (on so many levels!). Thanks for being part of our Harney fam.