Celestial Seasonings is an American tea company based in

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

, United States, that specializes in

herbal tea Herbal teas, also known as herbal infusions and less commonly called tisanes (UK and US , US also ), are beverages made from the infusion or decoction of herbs, spices, or other plant material in hot water. Oftentimes herb tea, or the plain term ...

s (properly called "tisanes"), but also sells

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...

, and chai teas. As of 2006, the company's annual gross sales were approximately .''

Modern Marvels ''Modern Marvels'' is an American worldwide television series that formerly aired on the History Channel and is currently shown on Story Television. The program focuses on how technologies affect and are used in modern society. It is History's ...

'': "Tea Education" ( episode 553), December 13, 2006.

History

Celestial Seasonings

founders Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

Mo Siegel, Peggy Clute, Wyck Hay, and Lucinda Ziesing started gathering herbs and flowers in the mountains around Boulder and selling them to local health-food stores in 1969. The company name was derived from Ziesing's nickname. In the 1970s, Wycks' brother John Hay and Beth Underwood joined the company. They soon created

blends (such as ''Sleepytime'' and ''Red Zinger'') and moved to larger headquarters twice; by 1977 the company began selling internationally. Celestial Seasonings also created and sponsored the

Red Zinger Bicycle Classic The Red Zinger Bicycle Classic (1975–1979) was a road bicycle racing stage race. History In 1975, Mo Siegel and John and Wyck Hay, founders of the Celestial Seasonings herbal tea company, launched the Red Zinger Bicycle Classic race to promot ...

race in Colorado during the 1970s. The iconic paintings on many of the different tea blends (such as ''Sleepytime'' and ''Red Zinger'') were created by Beth Underwood. Celestial Seasonings was purchased by

Kraft Foods The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arran ...

in 1984. Siegel retired in 1986, and the next year, Kraft announced they would sell Celestial Seasonings to Lipton. The sale was successfully challenged by Bigelow under

antitrust law Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust ...

s, and local management purchased the company back from Kraft in 1988. In 1990, Celestial Seasonings moved into new headquarters in a custom-designed facility in North Boulder. Siegel returned in 1991, to serve as CEO. Celestial Seasonings merged with

natural food Natural food and all-natural food are terms in food labeling and marketing with several definitions, often implying foods that are not manufactured by processing. In some countries like the United Kingdom, the term "natural" is defined and regu ...

company the Hain Food Group in 2000 to form the

Hain Celestial Group The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. is an American food company whose main focus is natural foods and botanically-based personal care products. Its products range from herbal teas, sold by its Celestial Seasonings brand to snacks offered through its Te ...

. Siegel retired for the second time in 2002.

Products

The company's teas are branded using animals, including an anthropomorphic bear for the Sleepytime range.

Legal issues

In 2013 Hain Celestial became one of 25 companies targeted in an ongoing

class action lawsuit A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

regarding allegations of falsely labeling their personal care products (including Celestial Seasonings) as ' organic' under California law (California Products Act of 2003) to mislead consumers into purchasing them. In 2015 Hain Celestial Group reached a settlement and agreed to pay consumers a $7.5 million compensation for mislabeling their products with an additional $2.4 million worth of coupons.

References

{{reflist

External links

Celestial Seasonings Official WebsiteThe Hain Celestial GroupCase 8:13-cv-01757-AG-AN
Tea brands in the United States Companies based in Boulder, Colorado American companies established in 1970 1970 establishments in Colorado