Celestial Seasonings is an American tea company based in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...

, United States. The company specializes in

herbal tea Herbal teas, technically 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. Often herb tea, or the plai ...

s 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 com ...

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

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

, and chai teas. Founded in 1969, it is a subsidiary of Hain Celestial Group.

History

Early history

Celestial Seasonings has origins dating back to 1969 when co-founders Mo Siegel and Wyck Hay gathered wild herbs in the area of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

and used them to make herbal teas. The tea was then packaged and sold to local health food stores with the help of wives and friends. The first tea blend was called Mo's 36 which Siegel, his wife, and friends sold out of the back of a car while traveling across the United States. Additional blends were created and the company Celestial was officially formed in 1972, becoming the first American tea company to offer herbal tea blends. Celestial Seasonings also created and sponsored the Red Zinger Bicycle Classic race in Colorado during the 1970s. In 1972, it introduced Sleepytime, its bestselling tea.

1983–1999; purchase and sale by Kraft

Celestial Seasonings went public in 1983, but withdrew its public offering after a product recall. The following year it was purchased by

Kraft Foods Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...

. By 1983, it had sales of $27million in its first year and was responsible for 40 percent of the herbal tea business. Siegel retired in 1986, and the next year, Kraft announced they would sell Celestial Seasonings to

Lipton Lipton is a brand named after its founder, Sir Thomas Lipton, Tom Lipton, who started an eponymous grocery retail business in the United Kingdom in 1871. The brand was used for various consumer goods sold in Lipton stores, including tea from 1 ...

. Bigelow successfully sued to stop the sale based on

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. Kraft then sold Celestial to

Vestar Capital Partners Vestar Capital Partners is an American private equity firm focusing on leveraged buyout transactions in middle-market companies in the United States. The firm, which was founded in 1988, is headquartered in New York City with offices in Boston, Ma ...

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 its chairman and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

. The company introduced a green tea line in 1995, the first to be sold in mainstream stores in the United States.

2000–present; Hain Celestial Group merger

Celestial Seasonings merged with natural food company the Hain Food Group in 2000 to form the Hain Celestial Group. The same year it introduced a chai tea line. Siegel retired for the second time in 2002. The following year it released cool brew iced tea and

rooibos Rooibos ( ; , ), or , is a broom (shrub), broom-like member of the plant family Fabaceae that grows in South Africa's Fynbos biome. The leaves are used to make a caffeine-free herbal tea, herbal infusion that has been popular in Southern Afri ...

tea lines. Hain Celestial Group was one of 25 companies named in a 2013 class action lawsuit over allegations of mislabeling its products (which included Celestial Seasonings) under California law. The company reached a settlement in 2015, paying $7.5million in compensation with an additional $2.4million worth of coupons to consumers. By 2019, Celestial had over 100 varieties of teas and accounted for 5 percent of Hain Celestial Group's net sales.

Products

Celestial Seasonings manufactures and sells herbal and other varieties of tea. The company's teas are branded using animals, including an

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...

for the Sleepytime range.Pop Icon https://popicon.life/celestial-seasonings-sleepytime-bear-tea-icon/

Trivia

Singer and musician Camryn Magness is the granddaughter of Celestial Seasonings co-founder Mo Siegel.These are real people; this is real life
. ''Rocky Mountain News'', December 22, 2007
Archived

References

External links

Celestial Seasonings Official Website
{{Hain Celestial Group Tea brands in the United States Companies based in Boulder, Colorado American companies established in 1970 1970 establishments in Colorado Food and drink companies established in 1970 1980s initial public offerings 1984 mergers and acquisitions 1986 mergers and acquisitions 1988 mergers and acquisitions