Celestial Samplings

Tabitha and Elise

Today we kept it simple. Our only goal (aside from filling up and visiting the library) was to tour the Celestial Seasonings factory. This is a free tour at the company’s only factory, and it’s pretty well done. First, your tour ticket is a single packet of tea. The flavor of the packet corresponds with the time of your tour. So, everyone in our group got Tangerine Something-something Zinger. Before the tour begins we all watched a promotional video. Then we got our hair nets. We get to keep those.


Hey, where’d you get that snappy hair net?

First we saw the huge bags of innumerable herbs and dried plants of all kinds — they make around 100 flavors of tea. The most famous and best selling flavors you can probably name yourself: 1) Sleepytime, 2) Chamomile, 3) Peppermint. The ingredients come from all over the world and the company carefully cultivates relationships with their growers, some for three generations. As soon as you walk into the milling area — this is where the dried raw ingredients that have passed inspection are cut into fine sizes that will be used in their tea blends — you smell a million lovely smells all at once. It’s not overpowering, but I wondered if working here everyday wouldn’t make my nose tired.

Next we went to the tea room. This is separate from the main warehouse and contains only tea leaves or camellia sinensis. That is the latin name for the evergreen bush grown first and most widely in China and India whose leaves provide the flavor for all black, green and white teas. In fact, most of what Celestial Seasonings produces are not teas, but herbal infusions. That sounds kind of dangerous, so they call ‘em herbal teas. Tea leaves absorb odors readily. If they were left in the main area of the warehouse with all of the herbs and other ingredients, they would absorb their smells. On its own, this room smelled great.

You may already know this, but I’ll write it just in case. The difference between teas called black, green, and white isn’t ingredients. It is only processing. All are made from tea leaves. To produce white tea, the leaves are not allowed to wilt and are quickly dried to prevent oxidation (like how an apple turns brown). Oxidation increases the flavor of the tea. Green tea comes from leaves that are wilted, and only slightly oxidized. Black tea is produced from leaves that have been permitted to fully oxidize, thus bringing out the strongest flavors.

We made a stop at the mint room, which contains the bags of milled peppermint and spearmint leaves. Mint leaves are not milled at the factory because their overpowering aroma and oils would require constant, thorough cleaning of the machines. After our tour guide opened the big bay door he said feel free to go in, but only stay as long as you want. We walked in. It was as if you put your face over a boiling vat of Vics Vaporub. The menthol immediately invaded your sinuses, clearing them nicely, and made your eyes sting and water. For a minute or two, it’s pretty amusing. Any longer than that would be a cruel and exotic form of torture.

The final leg of the tour takes you past the packaging machines. These are classic assembly line systems, like you saw every so often during a segment of Sesame Street or Electric Company or some other educational-PBS-type show. I love to watch ‘em go. After the tour we found ourselves in — where else? — the tea store. We milled about. Elise hung out with her new fast-friend Tabitha whom she met at the start of the tour. I went over to the sampling room, where you can try any flavor of tea (and now coffee) that the company makes. Whilst sampling the Peach Apricot Honeybush (yes, that’s what it’s called) I sweetened it with pure agave nectar. This is the best sweet stuff I have ever tasted. It’s pure sweet. I bought a bottle. Danine got a box of the Peach Appaloosa Honeybunch stuff. All in all, it was a fine tour and pleasant afternoon.


The sampling room with its comfortable seating and funky tea art.