Tea time!

On my recent trip to Denver, Colorado, last month, my roommate and I spent Friday morning traveling to Boulder, Colorado with the intent of going to the Celestial Seasonings plant.  Why?  Because I am a tea fiend.  No kidding.  If it’s tea…I love it.  And there is no doubt that Celestial Seasonings has some of the best teas out there.  Why not go to the source?

We headed out early from Denver and made it to the plant before it even opened.  But we were a little hungry and, thankfully, their Celestial Café was open and serving breakfast.  I noticed a menu hanging on the wall with a variety of dishes that could be ordered, but it appeared everything was being done cafeteria style.  There were hot trays of breakfast casseroles (one vegetarian, one not), breads, your usual bagels, muffins, etc.  Since I have a gluten allergy I got a (very) small bowl of the vegetarian breakfast casserole (eggs, potatoes, cheese) and discovered some delicious gluten-free breads in a small refrigerator near the front of the café.  My roommate grabbed the gluten-free cinnamon coffee bread and I decided to go for the chocolate zucchini bread.  And we decided we would split a bag of sweet potato chips…just for a little more sustenance.

We paid for our food and headed out into the dining area, pulling up a seat and digging in.  I have to say…my favorite thing was the gluten-free chocolate zucchini bread.  After one taste, I left it alone so I could eat everything else and save that for last.  Yeah…it was that good.  I later wrote an e-mail to Celestial Seasonings hoping to obtain a recipe for it…but never heard back.  I live in an area where buying gluten-free anything is not only impossible, but expensive.  But…it was worth a shot.  The breakfast casserole was…okay.  After all, it was sitting on a warming plate for the better part of the morning.  It wasn’t…fresh, but it was good.  I threw a dash of hot sauce on mine and enjoyed it well enough.  And the chips…well…they weren’t so good.  But we ate them because we were hungry.

After polishing off breakfast, I went back and grabbed more of the coffee and chocolate zucchini bread to take back to Denver with us.  I probably could have bought them out of that stuff without blinking an eye.  So…if you go to the café…turn around away from the food counter and check that small refrigerator behind you.  It was in there.  And even if you don’t have a gluten allergy (like my roomie), you’ll LOVE this bread.

Then…enjoy the rest of your time at the Celestial Seasonings plant.  Take a tour.  Sample every flavor you want (I know I did).  Visit their Tea Room…and buy whatever flavor you want.  I walked out of their with a new tote bag and filled it to the brim with tea flavors I can’t get in my area!  I’m making sure that every time I go to Colorado, this place is one of the stops I make.  I had such a great time there.

And I’ll hopefully be able to snag more bread from their café…