Christmas Creep Just Fine, When it comes to Tea

I Want My Nutcracker Sweet Tea

By Jenny Shank, 10-30-06

	Image courtesy of Celestial Seasonings.

I began noticing Christmas items for sale in Boulder stores last week, red and green gift wrap mingling with Halloween pumpkins and candy. The phenomenon of Christmas creep is nothing new--as this article notes, retailers have been introducing holiday items earlier and earlier in order to benefit from the added sales. While I'm generally annoyed when I see Christmas items in October, there's one holiday essential that I wish would arrive in stores even earlier: Celestial Seasonings' Nutcracker Sweet Tea. I noticed a woman buying the Boulder-based tea brand's Sugar Plum Spice holiday tea at Whole Foods last week, but when I went to the tea area, I found that all the Celestial Seasonings' holiday teas were stocked except for Nutcracker Sweet.

I first tried Nutcracker Sweet when a friend who said she was "addicted" to it supplied it. For once a product lived up the hype. The Celestial Seasonings website describes the tea like this: "This irresistible treat is a blend of the finest black teas from the estates of Assam, Kenya and Indonesia. Then we add vanilla and nutty flavors and a dash of cinnamon." I found that I preferred it to almost every other bagged tea.

The problem is that this is a "limited edition" tea that Celestial Seasonings only produces for a few months a year. I began to hoard it as the holiday season drew to a close. But I could never hoard enough. Last year I stockpiled four boxes of it, thinking that was enough. But I blew through them all, and even took a box from my mother, and still I was out of the stuff by May. You would think that because I live in Boulder, the very town where the Celestial Seasonings factory is located, I could find an off-season supplier. But I've had no such luck.

I spoke to a woman stocking the tea shelf at Whole Foods, and asked her why all the other holiday teas were out but not Nutcracker Sweet. She said that she'd put the holiday teas out a little early, and that most people start looking for them in November. The problem is that the Nutcracker Sweet box has a vertical orientation this year, so she didn't have space for it yet. "I could probably get rid of one of the chais, and put it out some time next week," she offered. "That would be good," I said, "because people like their Nutcracker Sweet." She nodded, as if she'd witnessed end-of-season tea hoarding first hand. "I know they do," she said.

Curiously, I felt like an addict having a conversation with a dealer. Celestial Seasonings invites us to "share the warmth and cheer of the season over a cup of Nutcracker Sweet Holiday Tea." But forget sharing. Keep your damn hands off my tea.

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