Recently in my travels, I visited a health food store with a wall of different teas. Curiosity got the better of me~as it always does~so I grabbed boxes from five different brands. Back in my office, I started doing what I always do: tearing into the packaging. I’m obsessed with how people put herbs together, how they’re presented, and what customers are really getting when they brew a cup.
My office is a bit of a sanctuary. I don’t go there every day, but when I need focus, that’s where I escape. The problem is, every time I opened the door over the past few weeks, I was greeted by the unmistakable smell of fenugreek.
If you don’t know fenugreek well, here’s the fun version: imagine maple syrup decided to run away with a wet barnyard animal. That’s the scent. Some people hate it, some people love it. I enjoy drinking it, but in an office it’s just not ideal.
This morning the smell was stronger than ever. After poking around, I found the culprit: one of those tea boxes, sitting alone on a shelf, leaking its contents into the room.
Here’s the bigger issue: when you can smell herbs through their packaging, those volatile oils are escaping, and oxygen is sneaking in to dull their potency. Volatile oils are the delicate compounds that give herbs their taste, scent, and much of their character. Oxygen reacts with them, causing oxidation~basically herbs going stale before their time.
Think about the journey: a box of tea might be packaged in 2024, reach a store in 2025, sit there for six months, and then spend another year in someone’s kitchen. Without proper protection, how much strength is left when you finally brew it?
That’s why it’s Celebration Herbals. Since day one, every one of our teas has been sealed inside a special high-barrier pouch that keeps oxygen out of the herbs and volatile oils in the herbs. Even very strong herbs~think valerian, mint, fenugreek, eucalyptus, or cloves~can’t be smelled through our packaging, and we’re proud of that fact. It means when you open a box of our tea, you’re getting herbs that are still vibrant, still worth your time, not faded shadows of what they once were.
And because freshness matters after the first cup too, every pouch has a zipper so you can reseal it. That way the last bag is just as protected as the first.
So here’s my note to anyone who drinks herbal teas: if you can smell the herbs before you open the package, you’re already missing out on their best qualities. They deserve care, and so do you.