Celestial Seasonings
Celestial Seasonings is an American tea company based in Boulder, Colorado. It mainly makes herbal teas but also sells green, white, black, and chai teas. The company was founded in 1969 by Mo Siegel and Wyck Hay after they gathered wild herbs in the Rocky Mountains and sold blends to local health food stores. The first blends were Mo's 36 Herb Tea and Mo's 24 Herb Tea, sold from the back of a car.
In 1972, Red Zinger Herb Tea was introduced, and Sleepytime, its bestselling tea, followed soon after. The 1970s also saw Celestial Seasonings sponsor the Red Zinger Bicycle Classic in Colorado.
The company moved to a larger facility in Boulder in 1999. It went public in 1983 but pulled the offering after a product recall. Kraft Foods bought Celestial Seasonings in 1984. Siegel retired in 1986, and Kraft tried to sell Celestial to Lipton in 1987, but antitrust laws blocked the deal. Kraft then sold Celestial to Vestar Capital Partners in 1988. In 1990, Celestial Seasonings opened a new headquarters in North Boulder, and Siegel returned as chairman and CEO in 1991.
A green tea line was introduced in 1995, the first to be sold in mainstream stores in the United States. In 2000, Celestial Seasonings merged with the Hain Food Group to form the Hain Celestial Group and added a chai tea line. Siegel retired again in 2002. The company later released cool brew iced tea and rooibos tea lines.
In 2013, Hain Celestial faced a class action over mislabeling some products, including Celestial Seasonings, and settled in 2015 for $7.5 million plus $2.4 million in consumer coupons. By 2019, Celestial Seasonings offered more than 100 teas and accounted for about 5% of Hain Celestial’s net sales. The brand is known for its animal imagery on packaging, such as the Sleepytime bear.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 12:28 (CET).