Celestial Seasonings

While coffee is probably my favorite drink, tea comes in close second. Growing up we only ever had the plain-old-no-flavor tea. I didn't like it. I continued to not like it until I was married. For some reason after I was married I decided to give it a second chance. At Winco I found a Chocolate Hazelnut tea. I added a little sugar and milk and was hooked! Who knew tea could be so good. About that same time I also met A who does not drink coffee but loves tea. She encouraged this new love of mine. I had so many different tea boxes in my cupboard before we moved I told Hubby I needed a tea rack.

Upon moving to Colorado I have heard my mom talking about the Celestial Seasonings Tea factory in Boulder. I have been wanting to go, but it's about an hour drive, so I haven't really made the effort. Today however, Hubby had off, so after some research we decided to make the trek...and boy was it worth is.

Celestial Seasonings is located on Sleepytime Drive. As you turn the corner you are welcomed by the Celestial Bear.

We signed up for the 3 o'clock tour and were welcomed into the Taste Testing area - where you can sample any one of their 100 teas. Hubby and I tried about 4 or 5 together (Hubby - 1, Me - 3 or 4).

We also learned that all the artwork on the boxes of tea are pictures made just for that tea. The original works of art hang through out the Testing area.

As the clock tolled 3, we were ushered into a theater where we were introduced to our tour guide and watched about a 5 minute movie with the history of Celestial Seasonings, which is celebrating their 40th birthday this summer. We were also informed there was to be NO photography on the tour.   :(   The tour consisted of seeing the different stages of the tea making process. My favorite parts included:

• To clean the ingredients they are first passed through carbon monoxide to kill all living bugs, then placed on a cushion of air where the heavy twigs and leaves fall through to the bottom and the feathers and dust float to the top.
• Going into the Mint Room, where they keep spearmint, peppermint, and oddly enough catnip. Catnip belongs to the same family as the other two and has the opposite effect on humans that it has on cats which is why they include it in some of their teas.
• For the decaf green tea, they place the tea leaves in a chamber with carbon dioxide and put that all under a massive amount of pressure. The carbon dioxide grabs onto the caffeine without effecting the taste or antioxidants of the tea leaf. That caffeine is then added to another tea - Fast Lane - to make it way more caffeinated than a cup of coffee (I bought a box).

The end of the tour brought us to the Tea Shoppe where was all of the teas plus different accessories. I left with three different teas.

The drive back took a little longer since it has reached 4:30 upon our departure. The trip home was spent dreaming of who we can take with us next time to Tea Heaven.