Boulder: Tea Tour

Thursday, 28 March 2019
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Temps: 71F (22C) / 41F (5C)

Since all work — getting settled into the stix & brix — and no play indeed makes Erin and Mui very dull, we set today aside for some fun.  And what great fun it turned out to be.  As a bonus, we had a gorgeous day to add to our pleasure … sunshine, blue skies, and very comfy temps that were perhaps just a tad bit cooler in Boulder than the temps forecasted for Colorado Springs.

MWR — Morale, Welfare and Recreation — is an organization within the US Armed Forces that provides a range of “community support and quality of life programs” for active and retired military ID holders and their dependents … at installations in the US and also overseas.  I, in fact, worked for one such organization — Det[achment] 118 in İzmir, Turkey … before Mui and I married and moved to the US in the early 80s.  But I digress … let’s continue the story.

Amongst the many MWR programs is one that sources discounted tickets for events and attractions.  Organizing reasonably priced sightseeing trips and multi-day tours is also under the purview of MWR.  The office that organizes all such programs may have different names, but the one we’ve come across most is ITT [Information, Tickets and Travel] … sometimes combined with ORC [Outdoor Recreation Center] … as is the case at USAFA.

Soon after we moved into our stix & brix, I checked the March calendar for ITT ORC and came across the day trip that we participated in today: the Boulder Tea Tour.

We met up with our group — nine participants plus our escorts Bill, who doubled as our driver, and Lisa — at the USAFA ORC.  By 8:45a, we were on our way north via I-25.  A smooth ride in flowing traffic had us at the first stop of our tour — the Dushanbe Teahouse — by 10:15a … in time to partake of a tasty brunch (at our expense).

This iconic teahouse has been in Boulder since 1989.

The iconic teahouse operates inside a very charming building… quite colorful and unique with its centuries old Persian design motifs decorating the interior.  Handcrafted by 40 artisans, the structure was constructed in Boulder’s sister city … Dushanbe … the capital of Tajikistan … situated along the historic Silk Road and a former member of the USSR.  Once completed, the teahouse was then disassembled and sent to Boulder where it was put back together.

The exterior design elements give us a preview of what awaits us inside.

Praying? … Looks like it, doesn't it?
Actually, checking out the tea menu with over 100 loose-leaf selections
and the food menu with fewer but very delicious brunch offerings.

As the manager later explained, the original structure was completely open to the elements.  Of course, that would not have worked very well in Colorado, so a roof with a skylight and walls with windows were added to weather-proof the building … thus preventing the beautiful hand-painted details and the hand-carved posts from deteriorating in the face of what Mother Nature can dish out in this state.

Amazing hand-crafted details draw one's eye up.

Fountain of the Seven Beauties … by Ivan Zakharovich Miloshavich

After brunch, we moved onto the second stop of our tour: the Celestial Seasonings visitor center and production facility … headquartered in Boulder since 1969 when one of the founders began making blends from wild herbs handpicked right here in Colorado and sold in hand-sewn muslin bags.  The operation, which was established in a barn in Boulder, has grown substantially over the years … producing enough tea bags now annually for 1.6 billion cups of tea.

Left:  Are those teabags in my hand?  Yes … and also our tickets for the CS tour.

Right: The exterior of the gift shop features artwork from CS packaging.
This one is “Bengal Spice.”  Each blend has an associated quote … this one is by
Aristotle: “In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous.”

We started off in the visitor center where we had an opportunity to taste a selection of pre-brewed hot and cold infusions and teas.  Staff on duty were happy to brew a cup of a different blend if we wanted to taste one that was not amongst the day’s selections.  As we sipped our beverages, we wandered around the small exhibit area, learning more about the history of the company and checking out some of the artwork that has graced the packaging of the various blends.

Tea tasting bar!  My favorite Flavor: the Sangria Zinger cold brew.

One of my favorite packaging artwork … no sign to indicate which blend,
but I see some clues that indicate this one might be for cold care.

Next up … an introductory video and a tour of the production facility … no photos allowed here.  Our guide explained that the ingredients for the various tea lines are sourced from over 35 countries worldwide.  All — except for peppermint — are milled at the Boulder facility.  The oils in peppermint make cleaning the milling equipment near-impossible … meaning cross-contamination between blends.  Therefore peppermint is received in milled form and stored in a separate enclosed area so that its strong aroma is not absorbed by the other herbs.  The tea leaves themselves are also stored in a separate enclosed area so that they remain pure and don’t absorb the aromas of the various herbs.

All tea — weather black, green, or white — has caffeine … just to different degrees. Some of the Celestial product lines do contain tea, but not all.  In fact, the original blends had no tea in them.  They were, therefore, initially branded as herbal infusions.  But in a country like the US where the coffee culture is far more prevalent than the tea culture, the branding caused confusion amongst consumers.  So the name was changed to Celestial Seasonings Herbal Teas.  They were allowed to do this with the caveat that the words “caffeine free” be included on the packaging to differentiate the herb-only ‘teas’ from those that contain actual tea leaves.

As might be expected, the tour ended in the gift shop.  We picked up a few different flavors of herbal tea … no supermarket mark-up, so less expensive.  Then it was time to pile into the van for the drive south to USAFA.  In order to avoid a massive back-up on I-25 that was showing a delay of nearly two hours, Bill and Lisa decided to drive us back via I-70W and a couple of backroads … a few that I noted were Colorado state routes 470 and 105.  We went through rural towns and ranches, and saw a variety of terrain, with the mountains forming a backdrop further to the west.  We passed a few places where there was at least one pair of camels and a couple of bison.  We were enchanted by the drive and will likely do some of these backroads on our own so we can stop and go at our leisure.

We were back at the Academy around 4:30p.  First we took care of a few errands on base … then we stopped to get a bite to eat on our way home.  In an effort to familiarize ourselves with the various eateries in our vicinity, we opted to try a new place — Hacienda Colorado … at the University Village shopping center.  The place bills itself as serving “Mexican food with altitude.”  Great food — we shared beef and chicken fajitas … with lettuce cups and flour tortilla wraps.  An excellent end to an excellent day of touring.

We’ve not participated in many ITT ORC activities in the past, but after today’s day trip, that will change.  We’ve already signed up for a “pop-up tour” — meaning one that was organized after the monthly calendar was published — and have our name down for a castle tour in May.  We’re going to check out the activities offered by the ITT offices at the other military installations in our general vicinity as well to see what else of interest might be available.

(Additional photos from the tea tour are at this link.)

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