Celestial Seasonings Fruit Tea Sampler Review
(sorry the picture is a little dark. I was having lighting issues)
Our lively fruit tea collection includes five of our most beloved teas brimming with fruit flavor.
—Charlie Baden, Celestial Seasonings Blendmaster
Celestial
Seasonings was founded in 1969 by a visionary group of young
entrepreneurs with an ambitious goal: to make the world a better place
by sharing their knowledge of the health benefits of herbs. They were
determined to find success while making their new company "an example
that business can work in peace and harmony with the planet."
Forty
years have passed, and Celestial Seasonings remains true to our
founders' mission to consistently provide, in their words, "superior
products" that help people live healthier lives, while still maintaining
"high ideals" like farmer-friendly trading practices and the use of
sustainable materials.
Ingredients come from
all over the world these days, but our all-natural teas have always been
created in our hometown of Boulder, Colorado. Our passionate employees
formulate the recipes, blend the ingredients, design the boxes and
package the tea – just like when our founders dried handpicked herbs in a
Boulder barn.
Commitment to authenticity has
made us one of the largest Specialty Tea manufacturers in the North
America, serving more than 1.6 billion cups per year, and one of our
very first blends – Sleepytime – is still the most beloved herbal tea in
the world. We know that our success is due to the millions of tea
enthusiasts who share our belief in the truly original blend of
"superior products" and "high ideals" that those young entrepreneurs
began more than four decades ago.
Sustainable Packaging (No Strings Attached)
Our Amazing Tea Bag
Our
natural fiber, chlorine-free tea bags don't starch or gluten and are
biodegradable and compostable – making them better for you and for our
planet. Best of all, because our unique pillow-style tea bag doesn't
need a string, tag, staple or individual wrapper, we save 3.5 million
pounds of waste from entering landfills every year!
Our Recycled Packaging
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. But with a tea box that uses
100% recycled paperboard, including 35% post-consumer waste, and can be
recycled again when empty, the beauty of our boxes isn't limited to
appearances.
Our Retail Displays
We
put as much thought into the retail displays in your store as we put
into our boxes and tea bags. Our natural brown craft paper displays are
made with 100% recycled paperboard, including at least 90% post-consumer
content, and our display headers are made from Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC) Mixed Sources Certified material. We also encourage our
retailers to re-use or recycle our displays again when the tea is gone!
Our Ongoing Commitment to Recycling
We're
continuing our efforts to make our production facility as
earth-friendly as our packaging. We recycle more than 700,000 pounds of
material every year, including paperboard, shrink wrap, scrap metal,
pallets and other materials. In fact, we've reduced the amount of waste
we send to landfills by more than 60% in just the past few years!
Our Building
From
our increasing use of wind-generated electricity to power our factory,
to expanded recycling and efficiency efforts in our office, to using
compostable and biodegradable items in our tour center, café and tea
shop, we're extending our commitment to the environment to every corner
of our building.
Ethical Trade Ingredient Sourcing
Because
we believe that the best ingredients come from the best farming and
sourcing practices, and because our founding principle is to always do
business the right way, we purchase each of our core botanical
ingredients in accordance with our Ethical Trade philosophy.
Straight from the Source
Each
of our signature botanical ingredients (including chamomile, spearmint
and peppermint, lemongrass, hibiscus and many others) is purchased
directly from the farmers and communities that grow them. Going
“straight to the source” allows our botanicals purchasers to personally
select only the highest-quality ingredients, and also means that more of
the benefits of agricultural production stay within the local
communities that grow our ingredients.
Long Term Relationships
Many
of our ingredient suppliers have been part of the Celestial Seasonings
family for more than 30 years – and they’ve grown as we’ve grown. By
returning to the same farming families and communities year after year
for our core ingredients, we provide our farming partners with the
stability of a guaranteed market for their crops in the years to come.
Long-term relationships also ensure a consistent, reliable and
high-quality source for our most important botanicals.
Sustainable Agriculture
Our
Ethical Trade partners use their expertise to produce the highest
quality botanical ingredients while also being responsible stewards of
the land. They choose to meet our strict standards for purity, quality
and consistency by using sustainable agricultural practices that are
better for the land, produce better ingredients and result in better
teas.
Passionate Experts
Quality
ingredients are important, but we also rely on a team of quality people
to make our delicious, all-natural teas. Many of our key Research and
Development employees have each been with the company for almost 40
years and are recognized as experts in their fields – ensuring that
every cup of Celestial Seasonings tea meets or exceeds our rigorous
standards.
From our Senior Blendmaster, who tastes
each batch of tea to make sure it’s just right, to our globetrotting
botanicals purchasers, who have spent decades traveling the world
finding the best herbs, teas and spices and discovering exciting new
ingredients, these passionate experts – and many more just like them –
personally ensure that the world's best ingredients come together
perfectly every time to create the world's best teas.
Celestial Seasonings Fruit Tea Sampler Demo and Mini Review
Sorry the video is so shaky. I am working on correcting the issue soon. Also this is my first video I've done so I'm still getting the hang of reviewing/demonstrating while filming
Product Review
Let me first start by saying that I really like this tea. I live in the "south" here in the USA and although Kentucky isn't in the main part of the south, I grew up on sweet tea. To this day it's still my favorite so trying another tea is an easy thing to do but most often I find I'm disappointed. I had tried a different brand of hot tea months back and was very disappointed with the quality. I had to use 2 tea bags just to get a decent flavor. And that was with the same size cup pictured above. Since it's been winter here I decided to give hot teas a try again and chose the Fruit Sampler from Celestial Seasonings. At my local Wal-Mart it was priced between $3-$4. Which is very affordable considering it comes with 18 tea bags.
I like the variety in the sampler pack and each of the 5 flavors ( Raspberry Zinger, Country Peach Passion, Wild Berry Zinger, True Blueberry, and Black Cherry Berry) are very unique and put out a good strong flavor. Compared to past teas I've tried they can sometimes taste very similar to eachother. My favorites though are definitely the Country Peach Passion and the Wild Berry Zinger.
The packaging of this tea is different from other teas I've tried. I've found I prefer this in fact. They come sealed in a foil like packet so they are very fresh tasting. In the one photo above of the 5 teas you will see I just fold over the end where I opened it and this helps to the freshness sealed in. Also if you look at the photo above or watch my tea demo you will see that the CS teas have the "pillow" style tea bag. I much prefer this as I feel this contains the tea better so i don't have to worry about tea leaves getting out of the bag. It doesn't have the staples so I can throw it and some water in the microwave and have tea on the run without the hassle of having up to 2 containers for the water and tea. It may be harder to get the tea bag out once its steeped, but I've left mine in several time if I'm on the run and don't have a spoon to get it out. It's never torn or had the tea leaves come out of the bag.
Celestial Seasoning has several different varieties to choose from, they have Green, Herbal, Wellness, Rooibos, Sleepy Time, Chai, Holiday, and more. Each of these "Lines" contain several flavors of tea within them. So there are several to choose from if you aren't and herbal tea person.
Another added benefit of this tea is it is Caffeine Free, Gluten Free, and it is Kosher Certified which helps alot for people who have certain diets or cultural standpoints they follow. This company is also very "Green" oriented so they are focusing on doing things that help the planet and cut back on pollution. In today's society that seems to be an attribute that is hard to find, especially for your larger brands. They also focus strongly on ethical trade which is not only good for the "local farmers" but it helps the economy and consumers as well.
So I definitely reccomend you give this brand a try. I feel they have a tea(s) for any and everyone. Even if you've never tried tea or have a specific style of tea you like, not only will they most likely have that style but you will also be exposed to flavors and quality that surpasses several other brands.
