Visiting an Iconic Tea Factory, Connecting with Childhood

The magical Celestial Seasonings Tour in Boulder, Colorado is at the corner of Zinger and Sleepytime Drive, behind a small prairie dog village. As you drive up, the dogs stare out at you flipping their tiny tails back and forth, and you wonder: is this it? Then you see the green sign ahead: Celestial Seasonings Tour.

It’s tea time, people.

The day we visited, the sun was out and the prairie dogs were barking. And I conjectured that, given the boxes the company had created over the years, given the variety of herbals teas that they had produced, one could only expect that the Celestial Seasonings Tour occurs in a land of magical realism. The tour would not disappoint. Everything there is in honor of tea.

A Bit of Personal History Here

Celestial Seasonings is not just another tea company to me. It is an outpost of the 70’s, the decade of my true childhood.

When I think of the 70’s, I remember how different the food was. This was still, at least in my home town, a land of wonder bread, Hills Brothers coffee in a flowered percolating coffee pot, and Ragu spaghetti sauce.

Humans had recently reached the moon and people honestly thought Mars was next. The country was wealthier than it had been before. Possibilities were in everything. And in my house in Davis, California, if you opened the pantry, you would see a box of tea with a magical looking tiger or unicorn, smelling faintly of somewhere far, far away. It was one harbinger of the Real Food movement.

The Real Food Movement in America

In the 70’s, people were beginning to experiment with more robust examples of food and drink. Starbucks Coffee House, established in 1971, began brewing coffee on the waterfront. In 1982, Starbuck’s own Howard Shultz brought, from Italy to Seatle, the beginnings of the American Coffee Reform. The word “artistry” was introduced with hot beverages. And you know coffee is only of of these …

What That Meant for American Tea

Tea also started to become, not more robust, perhaps, but more evocative and more personal. Small tea boxes with artful graphic designs and unique purposes appeared at Safeway and Ralph’s supermarkets. Celestial Seasonings was the king of these. With their line of artisanal teas, they reached everyday America with opportunities to experience different varieties of tea from different regions, and to choose a tea that suited their personal life style, health, and mood.

As a child, these boxes themselves seemed magical. They seemed to prove that there was some other way to do things than the conventional can of coffee or box of black tea. Celestial Seasonings teas clearly came from Somewhere Else. If you couldn’t figure it out that Celestial Seasonings tea presaged magical powers by the smell, or by the fact that the bags had no paper tabs, the pictures on the boxes proved it.

A Powerful Moment of Self-Validation

It was a powerful moment of self-validation for tea drinkers. Lipton and Constant Comment were next door on the supermarket shelves, but here was a tea that was just for you.

Today: The Tea Tour Takes You Back

Celestial Seasonings tea tours depart every hour on the hour while the visitor center is open. Admission is $5. On the tour, you will watch a video with the history of tea and the company, walk through the factory and see the teas being sorted, blended, stored, and packaged, and watch as the tiny boxes whirl around a conveyer belt, preparing to be packed up and send all over the world.

Tea, according to the story, was discovered the tidier part of 5000 years ago by a Chinese emperor when a leaf fell in his cup.  But Celestial Seasonings, while they do sell black tea, specializes in the herbal varieties: the tea that is not tea.

Visitors learn that the company’s founders got their start in the hills above Boulder, where the company is based. Long-haired teenager types, they hiked out on an herb-gathering mission, brought their findings back, and sewed them in big muslin bags. These were sold as “herbal infusions,” but that concept wasn’t understood well so they started calling it “herbal tea.”

A Tea World Grows in Boulder

Thus the company was born, and thus it began to grow, helped along by their practice of commissioning original fine art for the tea labels which handily attracted buyers. The paintings, made by nationally recognized artists, are the epitome of whimsy; a teddy bear falling asleep in a chair; a lady in a red dress riding a dragon, or a stampeding buffalo with steam coming out of its nostrils.

As the company grew, so did the variety of ingredients. Today, with 150 different botanical ingredients sustainably farmed from thirty five countries, there’s a modern, health conscious tea in fine art packaging for every taste.  Because drinking tea, in the Celestial Seasonings’ way, isn’t just about nourishment or health – though the company emphasizes its use of natural, healthy ingredients – it’s about a frame of mind, an experience.

Giving Something Back

Visitors find that for this company the idea of giving something back with your purchase starts at home. Your ticket includes a no-charge tea bar, where pre-brewed teas stand in serving urns and staff are ready to make you one of 100-plus choices on the tea menu.  On the other side of the room is a collection of fabulous and impractical tea pots. The walls display original art, including the famous painting of the Sleepytime Bear.

The tour proceeds through the factory, allowing visitors to experience 20-foot high stacks of botanicals such as Eluethero Siberica and cloves, and the famous “mint room” where you have to blink your eyes rapidly to avoid tearing up as the scent rushes over you as if you were in an actual cup of peppermint tea. There’s the double-walled room storing the green and black tea in white muslin bags like fragrant feed sacks. You then proceed to the factory floor, where boxes of tea whip around the conveyor belt not unlike a scene from Charley and the Chocolate Factory.

The Gift Shop of Tea Heaven

In the gift shop after the tour, it’s tea heaven.  There must be 100 different teapots in there and at least a thousand mugs, including a number of them the type of which I’d never seen before. Boxes of the tea are for sale for $2.50, less than retail, and a number of chocolates, magnets, t-shirts and other novelty items abound.  It’s a tea drinker’s heaven. And then, with your purchases safe in a shopping bag, you can go back to the tea bar and get another round of free tea before leaving.

Details/Going There:

Days and hours:

Tea Tour: Celestial Seasonings offers the tour described for 45 minutes, on the hour. Children under 5 are not admitted, and 15 and under must have an adult with them. The tours operate Tuesday through Saturday, 10 to 5. Celestial Seasonings tours is closed on Sunday and Monday.

Address: 4600 Sleepytime Drive, Boulder, CO 80301

Phone Numbers: Tea Shop: 303-581-1219, Tour Center: 303-581-1484

Celestial Seasons Website Tour Info: https://celestialseasonings.com/pages/tea-tour