City: Boulder, CO

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (303) 530-5300

Address: 4600 Sleepytime Drive

Description: If you are planning a trip to Boulder, this needs to be on your “to do” list. Each year, 50,000 people enjoy a 45-minute tour of the nation’s largest manufacturer of specialty and herb teas. The tour includes an assembly line where tea gets packed in those pretty little boxes, and there are taste-testing opportunities. Employees’ children create safety posters, and the walls are festooned with sayings from the tea boxes. This is a New Age business to its very bones, now with a sleek all-business overlay that belies its counterculture origins in Boulder’s haute hippie era.Free tours are offered Monday through Friday every hour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Arrive early to get tickets, as tours are given on a first-come, first-served basis. Children must be age five or older to go on the factory portion of the tour. Groups of eight or more must make reservations. You can also visit the Tea Shop and Emporium, the herb garden and lunchtime cafe, whether or not you take the tour. Shop hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. To reach the plant, take the Longmont Diagonal Highway (Highway 119) to Jay Road. Turn right (east), go a mile to Spine Road, turn left, and continue a half-mile to Sleepytime Drive and Celestial Seasonings. Admission is free.