November 1, 2006
A Taste for Quality
At Celestial Seasonings, we’re known for our wide variety of tea flavors and for the high quality of our teas. We use more than 100 varieties of herbs, teas, fruits and spices from more than 35 different countries to make our teas. Certain areas of the earth are better known than others for producing herbs and spices. For example, hibiscus is native to Africa, Asia and Mexico; rosehips to South America and Europe; and blackberry leaves to Eastern Europe.
Each herb and spice has its own flavor and taste characteristics—tangy hibiscus, citrus-like rosehips, apple-like chamomile, soothing peppermint, full-bodied blackberry leaves, sweet cloves and hot-sweet cinnamon—and the flavor of each ingredient can vary due to the season, the country of origin, the growing conditions of the plant, and several other factors.
For 20 of my 30 years at Celestial Seasonings I’ve been the Blendmaster. For every flavor of tea we have a “Gold Standard” blend—a blend that tastes exactly the way we want it to. Every batch of tea we make is compared to this Gold Standard, and it’s my responsibility as the Blendmaster to adjust the ingredients until the new blend matches the standard. That means I personally sample every ingredient to make sure it’s good enough to go into our teas.
To help protect our farming partners around the world, I sample the ingredients before we purchase them and again after they arrive at our facility in Boulder. If they fail to meet our standards at any stage, the sale simply can’t go through, so the up-front work is absolutely critical!
We purchase 50% of our ingredients whole and mill them here at our facility to make sure they’re processed to our specifications to brew properly and release the most flavor. After milling, the ingredients are tested again and then sent to the blending area to be mixed according to a standard recipe.
Matching the Gold Standard can be a challenging process. For example, we buy hibiscus from several countries including Thailand and China, and the plants from these different countries have different flavor profiles. Thai hibiscus is fruity, whereas Chinese hibiscus has a tangy or sour flavor. Depending on the blend and the taste profiles of individual crops, I have to add just the right amount of Thai or Chinese hibiscus to get the proper balance of fruity and tangy in the tea. As another example, different peppermint plants have different amounts of oil, so I have to taste every batch of tea to tweak the amount of peppermint in the blend to keep the strength of the mint just right.
In my 30 years at Celestial Seasonings, I have tasted more ingredients and more batches of tea than I could possibly count, and every year we create more delicious tea flavors and search out new ingredients. It’s OK with me—I love a challenge!
