Tom Whittle began his career in law, but long hours and family health challenges prompted a shift to entrepreneurship, where he channelled his drive into endurance feats and Guinness World Records as a foundation for brand-building.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do before uni, so I did law as a safe bet,” he said. “Then I didn’t know what I wanted to do after uni, so I did law as a safe bet. There were a lot of 26 hour shifts in the office and I started to think I’m not sure this is the life I want to live.”
It was when his father was diagnosed with kidney cancer that Whittle drastically shifted direction.
“I decided to cycle the length of South America over 300 days to raise money for charity,” he said.
“It meant riding for 12 hours a day, with much of it at altitude. I hadn’t owned a bike since I was eight so it was a pretty big challenge. I had no nutrition plan. I just planned on doing the same as I did before the challenge—fueling myself with coffee and energy drinks.”
The lack of proper nutrition, alongside altitude sickness and food poisoning, brought the challenge to an almost immediate halt.
“On day two, I ended up in hospital on a drip for 24 hours,” Whittle said. “I realized I needed to find an effective way to sustain my energy levels.”
Once recovered, he continued his mission and it was while cycling through Argentina that he discovered Yerba Maté.
“It’s a huge part of their culture—if you stopped on the side of the road and were talking to a local for more than 10 sentences, they would be offering you some of their Yerba Maté," Whittle shared. “I found it gave me a sustained feeling of energy, and I started to think about the potential to bring this into the UK’s huge tea industry.”
He jumped straight off his bike and into product formulation, engaging a sport scientist and a master blender who had previously worked for Tetley to begin experimenting with functional recipes.
“I was using Yerba Maté, green tea and matcha for sustained energy release, along with nootropics like ashwagandha, ginseng, gingko biloba and anti-inflammatories like rooibos, ginger and turmeric for recovery,” Whittle said.
The entrepreneur was then hit with further devastation when his one-year-old nephew passed away from a rare form of cancer.
This sent him on his next next extraordinary mission—to complete 17 marathons in 10 days.
“I ran coast-to-coast across Iceland and gained the Guinness World Record for the fastest crossing of the country on foot,” Whittle said.
The challenge was fraught with obstacles. Due to diary constraints, he had to choose the month with some of Iceland’s heaviest rainfall, fewest hours of daylight and coldest (sub-zero) temperatures. He slept for two hours in a toilet cubicle the night before he began as the storm with 60-kilometer-per-hour winds and heavy rain was too much for his tent.
But with his nephew front of mind, he beat the odds.
After including his newly formulated teas in his fueling plan, he then had confidence, and a great story, to help launch his brand.
Mission Tea launched with a six-product range, including tea bag and powder products for three key health areas—energy, performance and recovery.
“It was the classic beginning, literally packing products on the kitchen counter with my mum,” Whittle said.
After relentlessly knocking on the doors of football teams, athletes and sports nutritionists, he started to receive organic orders and calls from Premier League nutritionists requesting his products.
Interest from athletes has driven the brand. Its latest £2m fund raise was led by F1 driver Pierre Gasley.
“Gasley got in touch and told us he had been drinking the product for years and now was drinking four of the cans a day, so he wanted to invest,” Whittle said.
Other high profile investors include England rugby player George Kruis, international cricketer Heather Knight OBE, sports presenter Jake Humphreys, and ex and current leadership teams of Hello Fresh, Kraft Cadbury, Brewdog, allplants, Innocent and Graze
The range has expanded to 11 products and includes seven tea bags, two powders and two RTDs, designed to support areas like focus, sleep and calm.
Asked if he will be taking on any other physical missions, Whittle said he is firmly focused on Mission Tea.
“We have fueled 20 different world records since launch,” he said. “I’m happy to focus on fueling other people’s missions for now.”