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Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory – Boulder

Serving 1.6 billion cups of tea per year, Celestial Seasonings is North America’s biggest manufacturer of herbal teas. Their tea factory is located in the Gunbarrel neighborhood of Northeast Boulder. The company, established more than 40 years ago, has only one mission:

to provide delicious, high-quality teas that are good for their customers and good for the world.

Celestial Seasonings is a world-famous tea factory, with free factory tours throughout the year. The Tea Shop has every flavor of tea they make, plus plenty of Celestial swag. On-site dining is available for breakfast and lunch at the Celestial Cafe. Enjoy light, nutritious home-cooked meals.

Natural Tea produced in Boulder

The iconic Sleepytime Tea Bear had very humble beginnings. Back in 1969, a visionary group of herb-knowledgeable entrepreneurs started blending natural herbs in a small Boulder barn. Like-minded people Mo Siegel, John Hay, Peggy Clute, and a few more others, started gathering herbs in the Boulder mountains to make their very first blend of tea.

It was also in the succeeding years that the herbal tea category was defined when they started selling herbal teas in hand-sewn muslin bags. The company’s name was inspired by one of its co-founders, named Lucinda Ziesings. All their ingredients were sourced from the area’s forests and fields.

This calming blend of hand-harvested chamomile, spearmint, and lemongrass was sold in 1969 through local health food stores. Today it boasts its own Wellness line of eight different Sleepytime varieties.

Helping the Whole World Unwind!

The idealistic founders of Celestial Seasonings were determined to find success, but not at the expense of peaceful and harmonious coexistence with the planet. Forty-five years later, the singular shared vision sustains one of the largest specialty tea manufacturers in North America, serving 1.6 billion-plus cups of tea annually, crafted from more than 100 different ingredients from over 35 countries.

Factory Tours on Sleepytime Drive

Celestial Seasonings offers free 45-minute factory tours that run every hour and comprise of a short video introduction and a 30-minute long walking tour throughout the factory. Complimentary guided tours take you into the working factory, multiple times every day. Every visitor gets the chance to see the behind-the-scenes, everything from making teas to packaging them.

Go on the weekdays to view the factory while the workers are busiest. If you catch it on a weekday you’ll see the factory in operation, blending, packaging, and shipping products. Tours are first-come, first-served for walk-in guests with reservations required for any non-family group of 8 or more.

See how everything comes together, from fresh ingredients to finished tea. Children 5 and up are allowed to tour the factory. All ages are welcome in the Tour Center.

All teas are available for tasting at the sampling bar and visitors are always welcome to stop in and try new blends without touring the facility. While on the property, enjoy a meal and some great art at the Celestial Café, open for breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday.

Other onsite attractions such as their Mint Room, Celestial Herb Garden, and Tea Shop are also open for daily tours. The Celestial Café, located in East Boulder’s Gunbarrel neighborhood, offers hearty breakfast and lunch meals and many beautiful works of art.

Specialty Seasonings – Popular Products

Aside from the USA and Canada, their teas are sold in many countries via their international distributors.

Furthermore, the flavors can be floral, fruity, minty, rich & earthy, spicy, or sweet. Their teas are sold in various forms, like bag, bottled, concentrate, and k-cup, while also being marketed to satisfy different moods:

• Feel Better
• Treat Yourself

2014 brought the launch of Organic, Fair Trade Certified™ Estate Teas sold exclusively at Whole Foods Market®. Hand-selected tea leaves are sourced from some of the world’s finest tea gardens in Rwanda, China, and India.

Celestial Sustainability

Blending for a purpose, the Celestial Seasonings also gives back to the community by helping different charities and organizations based in Colorado, as well as around the world. Corporate social responsibility remains the foundational core of the Celestial Seasonings mission:

Doing business the right way by combining high-quality, sustainably produced products with responsible global citizenship.

These ideals are evidenced in the natural fiber, biodegradable, compostable, chlorine-free tea bags that deliberately lack strings, tags, staples, and individual wrappers. Tea boxes use 100% recycled paperboard, including 35% post-consumer waste.

The company’s botanicals purchasers deal directly with the farmers and communities that grow the products, allowing for the highest-quality ingredients while simultaneously providing economic benefits that remain within the communities. Many of the farming partners have supplied Celestial Seasonings for decades, operating in accordance with sustainable agricultural practices.

The Artist Behind the Box Art

We think our boxes are just as important as the goodness they hold, so we’ve always created beautiful packaging adorned with commissioned works of art and thoughtful, inspiring words.

If you have always wondered whom to thank for the beautiful eye candy featured on the vibrant tea boxes all these years, much of the gratitude goes to artist Jerry LoFaro. From his enduring relationship with Celestial Seasonings Tea, LoFaro created images for over 50 tea boxes, products, and tins .

Now that the holidays are nearly over for another year, put on the new slippers, snuggle in, and soothe your overworked nerves with Boulder’s most beloved sleepy bear.

Address: 4600 Sleepytime Dr, Boulder , CO 80301

Phone: 303-581-1202

Season: Year-round

Website: celestialseasonings.com

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Celestial Seasonings Tour and Tea Shop

Hours updated 1 month ago

Review Highlights

“ Our tour guide was really engaging and the gift shop was pretty fun to shop around in once the tour ended. ” in 186 reviews

“ I am posting a few pictures before and after the tour, since you aren't allowed to take pictures in the factory . ” in 113 reviews

“ The tour stopped at the Peppermint room to smell the aroma (peppermint is kept separate from the other teas). ” in 81 reviews

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Location & Hours

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4600 Sleepytime Dr

Boulder, CO 80301

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About the Business

Since 1969, Celestial Seasonings has blended the finest herbs, teas and botanicals from the fields and forests of the world to create our delicious, all-natural varieties. …

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Some recent reviews note that the user went on the Celestial Seasonings tour. However, the website still says the tours are halted. Can someone please clarify? I want to do a tour! 😀

The Celestial Seasonings Tea Tours are reopening on Saturday, August 12th! They have new and different hours than are posted here on Yelp, so I recommend checking their website before you try and visit.

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Overall rating

483 reviews

I was eager to visit this place since it's reopening. I took the $5 tour of the warehouse. I waited in the lobby for the 10am tour while sipping some of the tea samples provided (I really enjoyed the Sleepytime Lavender tea). I walked around the several displays of beautiful art paintings and unique tea pots. The tour ticket was a 2 pack of tea bags to keep (cute idea). The tour guide was friendly and knowledgeable. The tour stopped at the Peppermint room to smell the aroma (peppermint is kept separate from the other teas). The tour finished in the gift shop which had a large variety of tea related items to purchase. Celestial Tea is celebrating their 50th year anniversary and for good reason because their tea is exceptional!

See all photos from Stephany .. for Celestial Seasonings Tour and Tea Shop

I came here with two other tea fanatics late afternoon on a Saturday. We were excited to go on the tea tour and sample the teas. Unfortunately, they were all booked for the tea tours and so we couldn't go. An employee told me that although their tours are first come first serve in person registration, they fill up quickly, especially on Saturdays. People come early, check in, and then come back for their tour, there are large groups, or they are just busy. Luckily we could still taste as many teas as we wanted from the tea bar and read about the history of their teas. This was fun and the employees were very kind and knowledgeable about the teas.

My mother & I got to do the Tea Factory tour & it was SO cool. The tour itself is only about 30 minutes after a 7 minute video intro that was entertaining & informative. Very easy parking & the tour itself only costs $5 (but of course we got lost in the tea shop afterwards.) All the staff were extremely friendly & the place is very clean. Super fun activity to do with traveling guests or just on a random off day.

I always love this tour. It is fun to see where they started and how far they have come. The tour guides are always informative, available for questions and sometimes funny. The fact that you can try any of their teas before and after the tour is great too. Gives you a chance to try before you buy. We always try different teas that we are not sure we would just buy without tasting them and then we end up buying a ton of tea in the tea shop afterwards. The shop is so cute and had great stocking stuffers for me this year. If you get a chance to do the tour, I highly recommend it. They charge $5 a person but then you get that $5 off in the tea shop so it basically is free.

This was so much fun. You can taste all of the teas and the people who let us try it had great suggestions. A quick pic in the Bears teacup house and we're off on a tour. We went on a day the weren't running the machines but that made it easy to hear the tour. $5 per person but you get a $5 per person in the giftshop. That's 1.5 boxes of tea!

If you love tea, this is an absolute must stop if you're in Boulder! They do tours every hour on the hour, and they are first come first serve. We showed up at 1230 and were so lucky we were able to get a spot on the last tour. Especially since we came from Colorado Springs lol. There is a station set up where you can sample all of their teas for free while you look at some of the teas history on the walls. Seriously so much fun! My kids loved trying all the tea, and the employees were so kind to everyone waiting to get their next sample. They all went out of their way with their graciousness. The tour was so much fun. You don't get to see the whole factory for what I can guess is safety reasons, but seeing what you do is so much fun. The mint room smells sooo amazing!

See all photos from Monika B. for Celestial Seasonings Tour and Tea Shop

During our visit to Boulder, we visited the Celestial Seasonings factory for a tour and tea tasting because we love love tea. The tours have just reopened and are $5 for about a 30-45 min tour. There's not all that much to see, but for such a small fee, it's kind of a cool thing to see how the tea is processed and get a whiff of their mint room. The tour guides are lovely and very knowledgeable. In the waiting area you can sample all the different types of tea that they have available which is awesome - my favorite is probably the sleepytime lavender and the watermelon iced tea was good too! I had never tried that one before. They have the original artwork for several of their teas in the reception area which is cool to see as well. It's amazing that the history of Celestial Seasonings goes so far back and how far they have come since then. There's a fun tea shop to walk through afterward where you can buy their tea and several other tea related things.

It was a long drive for us to get to Celestial Seasonings. We were really looking forward to the experience of the tea tasting, factory tour, and cafe. They have increased the variety of tea you can sample and they are happy to describe the tea and it's qualities to you. The tour now cost five dollars a person. It is interesting and immersive to take in all the aromas and sights. The tour took about 45 minutes. It was a disappointment not to be able to go into the peppermint room but you can stand near the open door to get the effect. The tour guide was enthusiastic and knowledgeable. Much to our dismay, the cafe is closed and none of the employees seemed to know when it would reopen. We planned to spend a few hours at this site, but with no cafe, we left pretty much after the tour. The gift shop is very cute but pricey. You can buy tea of course and it's a little cheaper than at the grocery stores.

A cute little sitting area.

In the mood for unlimited tea tasting? Yes, please! A must visit when in the Boulder CO area. Ample parking, friendly staff, and unlimited tea tasting. Only $5 per person to tour, but that $5 goes towards gift shop purchases, just as long as you go over the cost of the ticket. Our party of 5 cost $30, and our $100 gift shop purchases got reduced to $70.

Tea tasting menu.

I've been here multiple times when I was little and now as an adult it has always been a fun, relaxing place to go to. I would definitely check for tour times ahead of time before you go. I wish the store was a little bigger I don't think it's very expensive either. They always have good deals on stuff and have amazing, creative new things. They also have all kinds of teas to test before the tour its very neat and tasteful they provide sugar/other add one for teas as well. It's not far from Boulder so you can definitely go hang out there afterwards it's not hard to find. The staff was very friendly. You mention a Tea and they will go find it for you.Thank you!

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Celestial Seasonings - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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Celestial Seasonings Tea Tours

• 4600 Sleepytime Dr., Boulder, CO 80301
• 303.581.1266
• Visit Website

Join us here in the beautiful foothills of Boulder, CO for a factory tour. From raw ingredients to finished products, you’ll learn all about the wonderful world of tea and see how our wholesome products are blended, packaged and shipped. You'll never look at tea the same way again! Our tour is $5 per person and takes 45 minutes to complete. After a short introduction in our theater, visitors enjoy a walking tour through our tea factory. Please see their website for important information about wheelchair accessibility, minimum age requirements, and tour restrictions. While you’re here, be sure to visit our Tea Shop, featuring Celestial Seasonings teas and gifts plus healthful foods and personal care products from the Hain Celestial family of brands. Details at https://celestialseasonings.com/pages/tea-tour

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Celestial Seasonings Restarts its Popular Tea Tour, Reopens Tea Shop in Boulder, Colo.

Celestial Seasonings , based in Boulder, Colo., had a grand reopening of its campus to visitors and tea enthusiasts for its popular tea tour. The tea tour officially resumed on Aug. 12, along with the reopening of the Celestial Seasonings Tea Shop on the property.

Coinciding with the 13th Annual Celestial Seasonings B Strong Ride , benefiting the Boulder Community Health Center for Integrative Care and other local cancer charities, the tea tour resumed as 700 cyclists started and finished their ride on the grounds of Celestial Seasonings headquarters.

Celestial Seasonings’ Newly Designed Facility

The newly designed Celestial Seasonings facility greeted visitors with captivating visuals and engaging displays that showcase the passion and innovation behind the tea-making process.

In fact, the 45-minute tea tour has been re-imagined as a multi-sensory experience that includes a walk through an art gallery that features more than 50 years of tea box art; complimentary tea samples at a tea bar with more than 90 tea varieties; and an up-close view of the factory, where eight million tea bags are produced daily.

"We are so pleased to welcome visitors back to our campus," said Tim Collins, general manager of Celestial Seasonings. “Whether you are a long-time fan or new to tea, we invite you to Celestial Seasonings. We like to say our teas are a little bit of magic in your mug.”

Guests on the tour also get an exclusive look – and get to experience the exhilarating scent – of the famous Mint Room, which has led many guests to exclaim, “I survived the Mint Room!” In addition, the tour features the Sleepytime Bear Cottage, a recreation of the Celestial Seasonings box artwork, offering a fun photo opp.

Fun Facts About Celestial Seasonings and Its Tea Tour:

• Historically, more than 140,000 visitors come through the Celestial Seasonings Tour Center each year, with about 2.1 million visits total.
• When running at full capacity, 500,000 boxes of teas are manufactured at the Celestial Seasonings Boulder, Colo. plant each day (around 10,000,000 tea bags).
• The top three Celestial Seasonings teas are Sleepytime, Chamomile and Peppermint.
• Celestial Seasonings’ Sleepytime brand tea is the No. 1 sleep tea (per Circana, MULO+C, latest 52 week data ending 7/30/23).
• Celestial Seasonings sources ingredients for its teas from 40 different countries and 10 U.S. states, with 70 percent of ingredients purchased directly from farmers and local communities.
• The Celestial Seasoning boxes are made with 100-percent recycled paperboard (including 35 percent consumer waste), and the company will soon be eliminating the plastic overwrap on the tea boxes. That will save around 160,000 pounds of plastic waste a year.
• Celestial Seasonings tea offerings currently feature stringless, tagless, stapleless and individual wrapper free tea bags – saving 3.5 million pounds of waste from entering landfills every year (calculation of the weight of string plus tag multiplied by the total number of teabags made).
• Unique to Celestial Seasonings is its iconic custom art commissioned for its boxes.
• Celestial Seasonings exports its teas to around 35 countries.
• 1.6 billion cups of Celestial Seasonings tea are served globally each year.
• Celestial Seasonings is America's first herbal tea company. In 1969, its first tea was created from herbs and botanicals foraged in the forests of the Rocky Mountains.

Celebrating 50 Years

Celestial Seasonings, Inc. (a subsidiary of The Hain Celestial Group ) has been creating teas for more than 50 years, and the brand currently offers more than 90 varieties of herbal, green, black, wellness, rooibos and chai teas. Each blend is crafted by the company’s blendmaster – all from the finest herbs, teas, spices and botanicals.

For more information on Celestial Seasonings, the tea tour or the tea shop, visit  CelestialSeasonings.com .

Don’t Miss the Weekly World Tea News eNewsletter! Get your free subscription, if you’re not already subscribed, by clicking here.

Plan to Attend or Participate in World Tea Expo, March 18-20, 2024

To learn about other key developments, trends, issues, hot topics and products within the global tea community, plan to attend World Tea Expo, March 18-20, 2024 in Las Vegas, co-located with Bar & Restaurant Expo . Visit WorldTeaExpo.com .

To book your sponsorship or exhibit space at the World Tea Conference + Expo, or to enquire about advertising and sponsorship opportunities at World Tea News, contact:

Ellainy Karaboitis-Christopoulos Business Development Manager, Questex Phone: +1-212-895-8493 Email: [email protected]

Also, be sure to stay connected with World Tea Expo on social media for details and insights about the event. Follow us on Twitter ,  Facebook ,  Instagram  and  LinkedIn .

Matador Original Series

How Foraged Colorado Herbs Kickstarted America’s Love of Herbal Tea

M y tour group is huddled around a yellow column in the Celestial Seasonings headquarters. We’re staring, mesmerized, at a painting hanging in front of us as our guide murmurs quietly behind us. This, she tells us with a hint of pride in her voice, is the original illustration of the iconic Sleepy Time bear, the unofficial Celestial Seasonings mascot that adorns its best-selling chamomile tea. We gasp. Nearly all of us have memories of seeing the Sleepy Time bear in the family cupboard.

My own memories are vivid. I regularly joined my godmother for lunch as a kid. A dedicated tea drinker, she always had a plate of cookies and a pot of hot water on the table when my mother and I arrived. I’d rummage through her cabinets, catching a whiff of Sugar Plum Spice (which at the time had ballet dancers on the box) and peppermint. But my favorites were always Lemon and Raspberry Zinger — the tart, citrusy flavor and the giant, juicy fruits floating on the boxes always made my mouth water.

Americans obsessed with work and productivity aren’t tea drinkers by nature — they need coffee to fuel their endless ambition. Yet Celestial Seasonings managed to tap into what we can embrace about tea: stability, peace, quiet, and family, even if only for a fleeting moment at the end of the day. After 50 years in business, Celestial Seasonings teas occupy a revered place alongside coffee in the cabinets of Americans from every background.

Celestial Seasonings’ branding has always suggested the presence of magic and fairytale lands where friendly animals come to life and giant lemons float through the sky like clouds. The same can be felt at the company’s headquarters in Boulder , which is open for tours. There is a kind of magic present at Celestial Seasonings — but it mostly has to do with nostalgia.

Before there was Sleepy Time, there were foraged herbs

Photo: DetskymodelingDotCz /Shutterstock

In 1969, Mo Siegel was a teenager living in Aspen, Colorado, and would often hang out at the local health food store. He spent his days hiking in the mountains and took an interest in the local plant life, including the fresh, fragrant herbs he crushed underfoot on his daily treks. It dawned on Siegel that he could make tea with the wild herbs growing in the mountains, so he began picking bunches, creating different combinations, and giving away the resulting blends.

Later that year, Siegel decided to relocate to Boulder, where his life carried on much the same way: He took hikes in the mountains and picked the herbs that he found along the way — rose hip, red clover blossoms, raspberry leaves. Except this time, Siegel decided that he wanted to sell his signature blends. He already knew where to get his herbs. The challenge would be to make his business official.

“When we first started doing this, herbal tea was very fringe,” explains Tim Collins, vice president of marketing at Celestial Seasonings. “In fact, we had to create and name the category ‘herbal tea’ in this country. Elsewhere in Europe, they had similar offerings called tissanes or infusions, but nobody in America knew what that meant at the time.”

Still, Siegel couldn’t be deterred from his dream. He knew a girl in Boulder named Lucinda — but all the men in town knew her as Celestial Seasonings. She was so beautiful, she was seasoned by heaven, they all said. Siegel had his company name. Next, he started thinking about how to package his product.

Seigel stamped muslin bags with circular hand-drawn designs — a red lightning bolt or a blue palm tree — and filled them with his hand-picked blends. In 1969, at the age of 19, Siegel officially founded the Celestial Seasonings tea company.

Once the company was on its feet, Siegel became eager to expand his repertoire of herbs. In 1972, he traveled to Mexico. In Sonora, he headed to a market selling herbs and dried plants. It was here that Siegel discovered tilia leaves, which have a calming, very mild sedative effect. He figured the woody, sweet cherry flavor would pair well with chamomile.

Siegel took the herb back to Boulder and embarked on a series of taste tests. Eventually, he landed on a combination of tilia leaves, chamomile, lavender, lemongrass, and orange blossoms. It was the perfect blend of herbs to lull tea drinkers into a peaceful snooze. The result of his experimentation is the now classic Sleepy Time tea.

Photo: Elisabeth Sherman

John Hay, one of the company’s co-founders, recruited his artist sister, Beth Underwood, to come up with a drawing to accompany the blend. She painted the Sleepy Time bear and his family in their cottage, thus shaping the way countless Americans viewed their bedtime tea.

Eventually, the muslin bags gave way to sturdier cardboard boxes, and accompanying illustrations became more complex, too: a bear in a life preserver paddling down a river in a container of blueberries, a wizard casting spells with his unicorn companion by his side, a princess clad in a red gown astride her tamed dragon. The characters on the company’s packaging have since become mascots for reluctant tea-drinking Americans.

Celestial Seasonings’ aesthetic is now famously psychedelic and whimsical. Genial animals and fruit rendered in vibrant colors splash across the labels, creating a fantastical universe imbued with magic, adventure, and benevolent animal companions. This is the place your daydreams take you while sipping a hot cup of tea.

Creating a market for tea in a non-tea-drinking nation

Photo: Celestial Seasonings

According to Collins, the market for herbal tea was “very small, fragmented” in the early ‘70s. One agricultural report published in 1971 found that Americans consumed just .75 pounds of tea every year, compared to the British, who drank around 8.5 pounds. The report goes on to say that while instant tea had been “virtually ignored for the past 20 years,” it began to gain popularity in 1970, the year after Siegel founded Celestial Seasonings. Yet until the 1980s, Americans remained intensely skeptical of herbal tea.

“The biggest challenge in the early stages was getting retailers to take a chance on a band of hippie founders from Colorado, peddling a radical new beverage that nobody had really heard of,” Collins says.

The company’s big break came in 1974, when actress Susan St. James appeared on The Tonight Show , which John Denver was guest hosting that night. She brought a pitcher of Celestial Seasonings’ Red Zinger tea with her to share with Denver. He took a taste and declared, “Red Zinger tea, far out!” Denver gave Celestial Seasonings a much-needed dose of good PR. With very little competition on the market, the tea company’s popularity boomed.

“In the ‘70s and ‘80s, Lipton dominated the tea category in America, and until their entry into herbal tea, we enjoyed nearly a 100 percent share of a much smaller herbal tea category,” Collins explains. “Celestial became the breakout and leading herbal tea brand very quickly.”

Collins insists that Celestial Seasonings maintained its success by focusing on tea that actually tastes good — the focus, hopefully, of every food and beverage company. Yet Siegel seemed to tap into something more appealing to Americans than taste. He saw that Americans wanted to feel comforted after a hectic day of work and raising a family, so he gave them the inverse of coffee — an antidote to the culture of overwork, exhaustion, and burnout that pervades American society.

It was an idea entirely separate from the British concept of tea. Focusing on blends inspired by plants Siegel originally foraged himself turned out to be a stroke of genius. The majority of Celestial Seasonings products, including Sleepy Time, are actually “herbal infusions” (and must be legally labeled as such) because they don’t contain any of the plant camellia sinensis , which makes teas like black and green tea. Americans responded to plant-based herbal teas that made no attempt to replace their precious caffeinated coffee.

What it’s like to visit the American classic today

The moment the tour begins, the scent of cinnamon invades your senses — earthy, spicy, and warm. Our tour guide, Evan, first led us through the section of the factory where the herbs (chamomile, hibiscus, lemongrass, and lavender) are stored in rooms separate from camellia sinensis — the black, green, and white tea leaves.

From there, we visited the mint rooms, which are closed-off spaces where peppermint and spearmint leaves are stored. The fragrance in these rooms is so pungent it makes your eyes water and your sinuses tingle; the subtle taste of alcohol, a little oily, might even linger on your tongue.

Photo: Elisabeth Sherman / Celestial Seasonings

Though the mint rooms are legendary, the factory floor is where the tour really peaks. Watching the endless conveyor belt of finished and wrapped boxes has a hypnotic effect. Glimpsing the Sleepy Time production line didn’t feel like the breaking of a spell. It was more like the big reveal at the end of the movie, when you find out the identity of the killer. It’s satisfying and clarifying, an answer to a long-held question.

Celestial Seasonings fully embraces its delightfully kitschy vibe. It embodies, through extremely well-executed marketing, what makes tea-drinking so appealing, even for Americans: Tea makes you feel safe and at home. At the end of the tour, I felt as though I had been hugged by an old friend.

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Celestial Seasonings Reopens its Tea Shop

Celestial Seasonings has reopened its campus to visitors along with the reopening of its Tea Shop , 4600 Sleepytime Drive, Boulder, Colorado.

The newly designed facility welcomes visitors with visuals and displays that showcase the tea-making process. The 45-minute tour has been reimagined as a multi-sensory experience that includes a walk through an art gallery featuring more than 50 years of tea box art; complimentary samples at the Tea Bar, featuring more than 90 tea varieties; and an up-close view of the factory where eight million tea bags are produced daily. The Sleepytime Bear Cottage, a recreation of the box artwork, offers a fun photo opp and guests will get an exclusive look – and experience the exhilarating scent – of the famous Mint Room, which has led many a guest to exclaim “I survived the Mint Room!”

“We are so pleased to welcome visitors back to our campus,” said Tim Collins, General Manager of Celestial Seasonings. “Whether you are a long-time fan or new to tea, we invite you to Celestial Seasonings. We like to say our teas are a little bit of magic in your mug.”

Celestial Seasonings is America’s first herbal tea company. In 1969, its first tea was created from herbs and botanicals foraged in the forests of the Rocky Mountains. Today the Company sources quality ingredients from 35 countries around the world and is the #1 herbal tea brand.

There is more information on Celestial Seasonings and the Tea Shop, go online .

About Celestial Seasonings, Inc.

For more than 50 years, Celestial Seasonings, Inc. (a subsidiary of The Hain Celestial Group) has created “delicious specialty teas that add magic to every moment”. The brand currently offers more than 90 varieties of herbal, green, black, wellness, rooibos, and chai teas. Each blend is crafted by our Blendmaster from herbs, teas, spices, and botanicals and is presented in packaging adorned with beautiful artwork and inspiring quotes.

(Photos courtesy of Celestial Seasonings)

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Local News | Celestial Seasonings tours, gift shop reopen…

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Local News | Celestial Seasonings tours, gift shop reopen Saturday to the public

Starting Saturday, the public is again invited to peek inside Boulder’s Celestial Seasonings factory as it mixes, blends and packages tea to produce up to 10 million individual tea bags a day.

Celestial Seasonings is restarting its popular tours — though they will no longer be free — and reopening its gift shop to the public after a closure that stretched more than three years.

“We are so ready,” said Celestial Seasonings General Manager Tim Collins. “This is the heart of the campus. Having consumers here is so energizing for us. It gives us such pride that people are excited to see what we do. This is such a happy day.”

Celestial Seasonings, located on Sleepytime Drive in a Gunbarrel neighborhood, stopped offering tours in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The gift shop and cafe also were closed to the public. The cafe’s closure will continue, for now.

In preparation for the reopening, the company held a ribbon cutting and tour on Friday for a small group that included former blendmaster Charlie Baden, who retired after 47 years at Celestial Seasonings. He tasted ingredients prior to purchase and when they arrived, as well as sampling the blends and then “every single batch of tea.”

Baden is featured in the new pre-tour video, which includes photos from the company’s homegrown start in the 1970s as a cottage business selling herbal teas. Baden, who joined the company in 1975, remembers the early years working with a small, close knit group that included a cook to serve daily lunches.

“We were all a happy family,” he said. “We ate lunch together every day. It was all mostly curried, vegetarian and good for you.”

As someone who makes regular visits to his old workplace, he said, he’s been “pestering” Celestial Seasonings leadership to reopen.

“When you visit Boulder, you go to Pearl Street Mall, you come to Celestial Seasonings and you hike Chautauqua,” he said. “This is a cool place.”

Leading Friday’s tour was Debbie Smith, who was close to her 13th anniversary as a guide when the pandemic hit. She worked briefly in the factory before deciding to retire, but agreed to return to her previous tour guide position. About 20 staff members so far have been hired to lead tours and staff the gift shop, many of them returning to the jobs they held pre-pandemic.

“I was delighted to be asked back,” Smith said. “You meet people from all over the world. People love our tea.”

As Smith led guests through the factory, she explained that the tea leaves, Camellia sinensis, for the caffeinated flavors are kept separate because they’re like sponges, absorbing other flavors. The mint, on the other hand, is stored in its own room because it overpowers everything near it.

“Peppermint is isolated because it likes to share,” she said.

Getting hit by a wave of mint’s menthol scent when the garage door to the mint room opens is one of the more memorable parts of the tour. The scent is so strong, it’s the only ingredient that’s bought already cleaned, sifted and cut to avoid having everything else that’s milled on the equipment acquire a minty taste.

Pallets of other fragrant ingredients, such as hibiscus, Nigerian ginger and black pepper, are stacked in pallets on the way to the packaging room. The packaging room includes three robotic “palletizers,” plus machines to seal the tea bags, pack them in boxes, add overwrap and pack them in cases. The overwrap, Smith noted, is soon-to-be discontinued to reduce plastic waste. The majority of the tea already is packed in “pillow” tea bags without strings or labels to reduce waste.

The first-come-first-served tea factory tours will be $5 a person and take about 45 minutes, according to the website. Guests are invited to start with a visit to the Tea Bar for complimentary samples of the company’s 100-plus tea varieties, then end with a visit to the gift shop.

Tours are available during business hours, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Celestial Seasonings is closed Sundays and Mondays. Children under 5 are not allowed on the factory tour, while those under 15 must be accompanied by an adult.

Celestial Seasonings, which started in Boulder in 1969, merged with the Hain Food Group to become The Hain Celestial Group in 2000.

For more information on tours, go to celestialseasonings.com .

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Celestial Seasonings’ Brings Back Tea Factory Tour. Now $5 Admission

Image: Depositphotos

Afterward, visit a tea sampling bar with more than 100 kinds of tea.

Do note that children must be age 5 or older to participate in the factory tour. Children under the age of 15 must be accompanied by an adult.

Other Important Details

Wheelchairs and walkers are welcome on the tour. Courtesy wheelchairs are available on a first come, first served basis.

Hairnets and beard nets (if applicable) are required to be worn at all times while in the factory and will be provided

Children under 5 years of age are not allowed on the factory tour

Children under 15 years of age must be accompanied by an adult

Service animals are not allowed in the factory

Outside food and beverages including candy, gum, and glass containers are not allowed on the factory floor

Photography/Video are not allowed on the factory tour

Personal items allowed on the factory portion of the tour are limited to a small bag such as a handbag or fanny pack and outerwear such as coats, vests, and sweaters.

Tours run year-round (except holidays) and depart hourly Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday.

4600 Sleepytime Dr., Boulder, 303-581-1484.

Celestial Seasonings

4600 Sleepytime Drive Boulder , CO 303-581-1202

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Restaurants, food and drink, restaurants, food and drink | celestial seasonings herbal tea factories reopening boulder campus to public, the first-come-first-served tours will be $5 a person.

Those who have been missing being hit by the overwhelming scent of mint in the Celestial Seasonings tea factory’s mint room or having the option to buy harder-to-find tea flavors will soon get their chance.

Boulder’s Celestial Seasonings is restarting its popular tea factory tours — though they will no longer be free — and reopening its gift shop to the public starting Aug. 12, according to a message on the company’s website .

Celestial Seasonings, located on Sleepytime Drive in a Gunbarrel neighborhood, stopped offering tours in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The gift shop and cafe also were closed to the public. It appears the cafe’s closure will continue.

The first-come-first-served tours will be $5 a person and take about 45 minutes, according to the website. Guests also are invited to visit the Tea Bar for complimentary samples of the company’s 100-plus tea varieties.

Tours are available during business hours, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Celestial Seasonings is closed Sundays and Mondays. Children under 5  are not allowed on the factory tour, while those under 15 must be accompanied by an adult.

Celestial Seasonings, which started in Boulder in 1969, merged with the Hain Food Group to become The Hain Celestial Group in 2000.

For more information, go to celestialseasonings.com.

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Back in 1969, we did more than just start a tea company. As the original herbal tea   company, we started an entirely new way of thinking about tea. In a way, we started a movement – a shift towards healthier, happier little moments carved into ever-busier days. 

More than 45 years later, we’re still true to those roots. We believe our delicious teas improve people’s lives by inviting balance, and that belief drives our commitment to our customers, our community and our planet.

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