I needed a break from mountain driving for a while and Joani had scouted out a couple of sites in Boulder, thirty miles to our south, so I was good with some normal driving for a change. First, we toured the Celestial Seasonings factory (Free and no need to make reservations). When we checked in for our tour we found we could sample any one of their 105 different blends of tea. This is their only manufacturing facility and they ship product worldwide. At one time it was listed in the top one hundred best places to work.
Celestial Seasonings founders Mo Siegel (19 years old), and others started gathering herbs and flowers in the mountains around Boulder and selling them to local health-food stores in 1969.
"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream;...
...not only plan, but also believe." Anatole France
A few brewed teas were self-serve, but you just had to say the word and a young lady would steep you a cup of any one of their teas.
We all had to don hair nets (and some lucky dudes got to wear beard nets) before heading into the factory. Sadly, we were not allowed to take any pictures on the factory floor.
We learned there were three steps in their production - sifting, blending and packaging. The packaging efforts seemed to take up most of the factory floor and they were highly automated with robotic handlers managing the heavy work. One fun fact was that there is only one tea (Camellia sinensis). White tea, yellow tea, green tea, oolong, dark tea (which includes pu-erh tea) and black tea are all the same leaves harvested at different times during the growth of the plant and are processed differently to attain varying levels of oxidation. Most of Celestial Seasonings products are not from tea leaves at all. They are herbal teas and are decaffeinated because none of the ingredients contain caffeine.
Ok, Joani grabbed the photo below off the internet. But this was a sign hanging over the "Mint Room." I'm not a mint fan myself, but I did squeeze into the room with the group and experience mint so strong it burned my eyes and made it a little difficult to breathe. Fortunately, we did not spend but a few minutes in there.
I love mint and loved the aroma, but there is a reason that they keep the Mint Room behind a closed door, the fragrance is astounding and overwhelming.
The tour ended in the gift/sales shop where I found a window looking into an unused corner of the factory. It was pretty typical of an automated factory that packages something, boxes the product and then prepares it for shipping.
It was a bit daunting trying to select just one flavor but after tasting quite a few, we settled on "Jammin' Lemon Ginger."
Joani usually does not do the souvenir thing, but when the perfect item makes her gasp, I make her do it - an RV related mug that changes color when it is filled with a hot beverage.
I love it!
We liked the artwork chosen by the company for advertisement campaigns displayed in the tearoom, but the plaque in the gift shop - Live your dream - made me smile. That might look good on the wall in our American Dream motorhome!
Teapot City, by Scott Gustafson - Vanilla Hazelnut Tea
Have a Celestial Night, unknown artist
Not far from Celestial Seasonings the Fiske Planetarium was located on the University of Colorado, Boulder campus. Our timing was off and we were too late for the program in progress and we decided not to wait another couple of hours for the next opportunity. We did, however, decide to walk next door to the Sommers-Bausch Observatory. The director of the facility was in and let us walk around the observation deck to look at the equipment. I think one of these PlaneWave 0.5 meter (20 inch) Cassegrains would look nice in my personal observatory someday. You know, I think Joani should have the 25x100 binoculars too.
Hunger got the better of us and we took in a leisurely late lunch before heading home to Sam. Yes, there was a doggie bag for Sam and he thoroughly enjoyed our return.
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