Astronauts and space visitors could one day enjoy a brew with roots in Teignbridge after tea farmers from Ashburton became involved in an intergalactic research project.

Dartmoor Estate Tea has provided twelve young tea plants to scientists who are looking at ways of cultivating the popular beverage in non-earth conditions.

Jo and Kathryn Harper from Dartmoor Estate Tea were approached by freelance planetary scientist and documentary maker Dr Maarten Roos-Serote who wanted to buy some young tea plants for the project

Dr Roos-Serote is working alongside professor of molecular physics Nigel Mason and a team of researchers from the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Kent in Canterbury.

The scientists are using 12 young Camellia Sinensis plants provided by Dartmoor Estate Tea to try and find ways of growing nutritious and sustainable food in space.

Four of the plants will be frown in lunar soil, four in Martian soil and four will act as a control group and be grown in Devon soil.

‘If people are going to continue to move towards and develop ways of successfully living and working in space, then space agriculture could be the future equivalent of locally produced food and drinks,’ commented Jo, who established Dartmoor Estate Tea in 2015.

‘It has always been our desire to produce and supply 100% UK grown specialty teas, with no air miles and minimal transportation,’ he explained. ‘Reducing air and transport miles by finding ways to grow food in a space station, the moon, or mars is going to be as important in space as it is on earth,’ he added.

Jo and Kathryn said their journey in tea has ‘taken them to some very interesting places’ but that they were ‘absolutely ‘STARtled’ when they were contacted about the research project.

Nestled in the foothills of Dartmoor National Park at Ashburton, Dartmoor Estate Tea is celebrating its tenth anniversary and were visited by MP Mel Stride earlier this year.