2 Things Challenge: Coffee/Tea

The first challenge of the new year! Yesterday, my hubby took me up to Sleepytime Drive in Boulder, to the Celestial Seasonings factory. Oh the sights and smells I wish I could share with you. But I wasn't allowed to take my camera onto the actual floor and I haven't figured out yet how to send smells electronically. And the factory itself wasn't "on" that day, all the machines were quiet and resting. But our very enthusiastic guide, Lydia, took us into "The Mint Room", where the menthol from peppermint, spearmint, and catnip overwhelmed our sinuses with it's smelly goodness. And we were introduced to all the machinery in the place that our guide Lydia had given first names to. Like I said, she was REALLY enthusiastic. ("Ruby" is the one I remember, the machine that looked like a giant yellow arm, that can suction cup a bunch of boxes and lift them onto a palate.) I learned that on a good day, they process about 10 million tea bags with a shelf life of about two years and ship them all over the world to 35 different countries. After years and years of sipping and loving this tea, I got to see where those colorful little boxes come from. So I'm not able to share images with you from INSIDE the facility, but while we were watching a ten minute C.S. film outside the entrance, I snapped a pic of.....the Sleepytime Bear! Looks like he's had one cup too many.

Here is the original sewing machine they used to make muslin tea bags, when the company was first starting out.

And for those of you into haute couture, here is an outfit made out of packaged tea bags. Some creative artistic type has a little too much time on their hands. It was behind glass and hard to get a decent shot of. I'd wear it!

And lastly, one of my favorite caffeinated C.S. teas is Bengal Spice. So when I noticed the artwork painted on the walls of the building, I just had to take this shot.

And as the final part of the challenge, here is a shot of my coffee cup this morning. Not very creative I know, but Shaun and I aren't big coffee drinkers. Usually when he wants a cup of coffee, I'm already halfway through my first cup of tea or vice versa. So instead of using a machine, we bust out my simple little one cupper. Mm, fair trade french roast.