21st Century Hustle

Celestial Seasonings is a brand that has been as ubiquitous in my life as bread and butter. My mother used to buy it from a place called Unicorn Village in Miami which was a 70’s predecessor to Whole Foods. The type of grocery store that had beads hanging from the ceiling and astrology books where the magazines would be in a regular store. As a kid, what intrigued me the most about Celestial’s colorfully designed packaging was the quotes about life that were printed somewhere on the box. It was almost like the cerebral version of the prize in the cereal box(yet not as fun!!), as it gave me something to look forward to.

It always made me think why would they care about printing inspiring words on a box of tea. However, as I look back it is clear that no matter why, they managed to make herbal tea synonymous with thought and introspection and position their brand at the center of a health food movement.

Now, herbal teas are everywhere, .where as before, in the United States, tea was just the weaker cousin to coffee. Here we are decades later and Celestial Seasonings is still here serving up inspiration [albeit sold out to Kraft in 1984]

The more I think about it, the more see how those quotes planted seeds into my subconsciousness and have become a part of my business. For example, I still find inspiration in quotes (as in Fresh Bread Daily) and tea continues to be my drink of choice. I even threaten to open a tea lounge every so often. Stay tuned on that! As I researched the beginnings of the company i realized that we even share a common theme with our businesses. In their about us section it says “Celestial Seasonings has always been about people and passion” and 21st Century Hustle is about the same thing.

Here’s their entire About us section:

Adventures for the Senses

Mo Siegel and the Flatirons, Boulder, Colorado.In 1969, a group of passionate young entrepreneurs founded Celestial Seasonings upon the principles of promoting a healthy lifestyle with flavorful herbal teas, which to that point had only been viewed as medicinal. The herbs were harvested by hand in the Rocky Mountains, and then dried and packaged in hand-sewn muslin bags and sold to local health food stores. By staying committed to their vision, the founders of Celestial Seasonings turned their cottage industry into an almost overnight success.

Since day one, Celestial Seasonings has always been about people and passion. The founders hoped to foster the values of beauty and truth through their products and their distinctive packaging. They wanted the tea drinking experience to fulfill all the senses, and committed to featuring specially designed artwork and carefully researched words of wisdom on each package to complement our delicious flavors and aromas. That vision lives on today, eveen as our product line has extended beyond tea to coffee and culinary spices.

http://www.celestialseasonings.com/about/index.html

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