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 states, 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 wes ...

, 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 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

white White is the lightness, 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 diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...

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 In bookkeeping, accounting, and financial accounting, net sales are operating revenues earned by a company for selling its products or rendering its services. Also referred to as revenue, they are reported directly on the income statement as ''Sal ...

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 f ...

'': "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 In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicina ...

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 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, arra ...

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 antitrus ...

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 A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

. Celestial Seasonings merged with natural food company the Hain Food Group in 2000 to form the Hain Celestial Group. 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 action ...

regarding allegations of falsely labeling their

personal care Personal care or toiletries are consumer products used in personal hygiene, personal grooming or for beautification. Products Personal care includes products as diverse as cleansing pads, colognes, cotton swabs, cotton pads, deodorant, eye l ...

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