A Day At The Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory

So today we decided to go and visit the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory in Boulder, CO and it was a really good experience.

Sleepytime Bear…

This bear is the universal and most-recognized symbol of the entire Celestial Seasonings line of products.

First off, if you’re not familiar with Celestial Seasonings, they make a wide variety (over 300 I believe… or maybe I heard incorrectly), varieties of flavored teas. And by the way, as we learned today, if they don’t have actual tea leaves, then they’re technically not considered “tea”, they are “infusions” but the public didn’t take to well to buying “infusions” to drink so they called them teas.

If I just confused you, then you really should consider making your way down to Boulder and go on the tour in person… it was great! 🙂

The factory tour was about 30 minutes long and we watched a short film that talked about the hippies who first founded the company… By the way, they make Terra Chips and a variety of veggie chips too… Who knew?!?!

It was quite impressive to see, hear and learn how everything is done and actually be in the very place they make the tea! Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures right inside the factory itself but we got to stand in the rooms where they store all the teas before packaging and manufacturing… The peppermint room was my favorite 🙂

Let’s talk about this Celestial Seasonings Tea Shop…

What could be better than all-you-can-drink tea for free? Not much on a cold wintery day, and these folks served it up generous bag after generous bag…

We got to pick any (and as many) flavors of tea from their entire menu and they would brew them freshly for us to taste right there, no limits… Of course there’s only so much tea one can drink, but still, it was great!

The big catch of course is that they’re serving up all this free tea so that you’ll find a flavor, or two or three or more, you enjoy so much that you’ll dash across to the gift shop and stock up on it… Brilliant!

Most Impressive Fact Of The Day

The entire company has only 250 employees, all located at their Boulder, CO campus.
– Our Tour Guide

Lunch At Boulder Pho

So of course you can’t get full on tea, so naturally we had to find a good place to eat. Through a combination of Googling and Yelping we ended up at Boulder Pho.

Seafood Combo Bowl of Pho

Did I already mention that it was a cold wintery day…? What could be more appetizing and satisfying on such a day than a nice steaming hot bowl of pho?

And add to it all the spicy fixings… Mmm mmm good…

The ambiance at Boulder Pho was great and the staff was very nice and polite, the appetizers were freshly made and just the right proportion to hold us until the main meal came. Best of all, the food… Was… Good… And very well-priced too!

I would highly recommend this restaurant if you find yourself in the Boulder area looking for something good to eat. Unfortunately they don’t appear to have a website or I’d link to it, but they’re on 28th St. in Boulder.

Just Half An Hour