Celestial Seasonings

Celestial Seasonings is an American tea company based in Boulder, Colorado, United States. The company specializes in herbal teas but also sells green, white, black, and chai teas. As of 2006, the company's annual gross sales were approximately US$100,000,000.[1]

Celestial Seasonings
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryTea
Founded1969 (1969)
HeadquartersBoulder, Colorado
Key people
Peter Burns, President
ProductsHerbal tea
ParentHain Celestial Group
Websitecelestialseasonings.com

History
Celestial Seasonings tasting room

Celestial Seasonings founders 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.[2][3]

In the 1970s, Wycks' brother, John Hay, and Beth Underwood joined the company. They soon created herbal tea 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 in 1984.[4][5] Siegel retired in 1986, and the next year, Kraft announced they would sell Celestial Seasonings to Lipton.[6] The sale was successfully challenged by Bigelow under antitrust laws, 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 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.[7]

In 2013 Hain Celestial became one of 25 companies targeted in an ongoing class action lawsuit 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.[8][9][10][11]

In 2015 Hain Celestial Group settled and agreed to pay consumers a $7.5 million compensation for mislabeling their products with an additional $2.4 million worth of coupons.[12][13][14]

Connection to the Urantia Foundation

In 1969, the same year Mo Siegel and friends collected the herbs in the Colorado Rocky Mountains that would be sold in health food stores and eventually became Celestial Seasonings, Siegel read The Urantia Book,[15] which is a spiritual, philosophical, and religious book that originated in Chicago sometime between 1924 and 1955.[16] The authorship is the subject of speculation, as it is written as if directly from one or more celestial beings. The Urantia Foundation published the text in 1955, which provides for the dissemination of The Urantia Book and aims to ensure the text remains unaltered.[17] Mo Siegel currently serves as the President of the Urantia Foundation, and he has said that the morals of the Celestial Seasonings company and the quotes printed on the tea packaging were based on the beliefs and practices of The Urantia Book.[18]

References
  1. Modern Marvels: "Tea Education" (episode 553), December 13, 2006.
  2. Giller, Megan. "Cults, Conspiracies and the Twisted History of Sleepytime Tea". Van Winkle's. Casper Sleep. Archived from the original on March 1, 2016. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
  3. Blitz, Matt. "Sleepytime Tea and the Little Known Religion Behind It". Food & Wine. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
  4. Sanger, D. E. (1984). "Kraft to Buy Celestial". The New York Times.
  5. "Kraft Agrees to Buy Celestial Seasonings". (1984). The Washington Post.
  6. John Gorman (December 8, 1987). "Kraft Sells Celestial Seasonings". Articles.chicagotribune.com. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  7. Pop Icon https://popicon.life/celestial-seasonings-sleepytime-bear-tea-icon/
  8. Joanna Lin (June 20, 2011). "Organic Product Lawsuit: Center for Environmental Health Sues Dozens". The Huffington Post. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  9. "Court document" (PDF). truthinadvertising.org. Retrieved September 8, 2023.
  10. Beth Winegarner (November 6, 2014). "Hain Celestial Buyers Seek Class Cert. On 'Organic' Claims". Law360. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  11. Beth Winegarner (September 17, 2014). "Hain Mini-Waffles 'Natural' Label Could Mislead, Judge Says". Law360. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  12. Aisha Al-Muslim. "Hain Celestial settles mislabeling lawsuit for nearly $10 million". Newsday.
  13. "$9.4M Settlement Reached in Hain Organic Consumer Fraud Class Action Lawsuit". BigClassAction.com.
  14. Kali Hays. "Hain Celestial Inks $9.4M Deal To End Organic Labeling Suit". Law 360.
  15. "Urantia Foundation Leadership | Urantia Book | Urantia Foundation". Retrieved September 8, 2023.
  16. "A Brief Description of The Urantia Book | Urantia Book | Urantia Foundation". Retrieved September 8, 2023.
  17. "Urantia Foundation | Urantia Book | Urantia Foundation". Retrieved September 8, 2023.
  18. Giller, Megan. "Cults, Conspiracies, and the Twisted History of Sleepytime Tea." Van Winkle's Null, 28 Jan. 2016. Inverse, www.inverse.com/article/10731
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.