5 Things You Didn’t Know About the West’s Coolest Wellness Brand—and How These Fun Facts Will Improve Your Life

It’s fall and as the weather cools, we get ready to hunker down in the cozy season, but occasional stress and sore throats are always right around the corner. Thankfully, here in the West, there’s an art to wellness that goes back decades: Natural remedies have always been a part of our innovative and pioneering spirit. One brand that was founded in the West and stands out for its embrace of a natural approach to healing is Traditional Medicinals®, the wellness powerhouse that offers teas, lozenges, and herbal remedies crafted from organic, medicinal herbs.

If you’ve ever wanted to soothe your throat, sip on something detoxifying, or just indulge in a bit of self-care, there’s a good chance you’ve reached for their Throat Coat®, and if you haven’t, it’s time to get familiar with this company that has been promoting plant-based wellness since long before the age of #wellness trends. Based in the heart of Northern California’s Sonoma County, Traditional Medicinals is beloved by people who want to care for themselves naturally. Found in medicine cabinets, kitchen cupboards, and handbags across the West and beyond, their products like Smooth Move® and Nighty Night® have earned a cult-like following. Long before wellness became a multi-billion-dollar industry, Traditional Medicinals stood for a simpler approach to health—one rooted in the power of plants. Here are five things that set this brand apart.

Image courtesy of Traditional Medicinals

1. Humble Hippie Roots and the Power of Plants

Decades before interest in adaptogens (plants that help us respond to occasional stressors) became a social media hot topic and long before its products graced the shelves of stores, pharmacies, and supermarkets across the country, Traditional Medicinals was just a little local operation in Sebastopol, California, a small town known for its laid-back vibe, organic apple orchards, and sustainable farming. This backdrop was perfect for launching an herbal wellness brand that valued simplicity, quality, and natural remedies. It was founded in 1974 by two people who would become Northern California wellness pioneers: community herbalist Rosemary Gladstar and social environmental activist Drake Sadler.

The company’s focus on herbal remedies from the get-go was radical for its time, offering plant-based healing when few others in the mainstream market did. The founders’ mission was to bring high-quality herbal medicine to the West Coast and beyond, inspired by ancient traditions.

Today, each blend is herbalist-formulated and combines traditional plant wisdom with modern science. These products have become part of daily wellness routines and support various needs across stress and relaxation, digestion, throat care, and seasonal care. (Travel Tip for Traditional Medicinal super fans: During the last weekend in April 2025, Traditional Medicinals is sponsoring the annual Apple Blossom Festival in Sebastopol. The festival will be 70’s Flower-Power themed, aligning with the decade of the company’s founding and its botanical roots.)

Image courtesy of Traditional Medicinals

2. Clever, Cozy Products with Big Benefits

Traditional Medicinals is one of the few brands that starts to make you feel better even before you take the product, thanks to their folksy, clever, and straight-to-the-point product names, which are as memorable as they are effective. Throat Coat is one of the brand’s most beloved teas, designed to soothe sore throats with ingredients like organic and sustainably collected slippery elm bark and licorice root. The cozy, comforting aroma of it brewing in an earthenware mug is enough to bring instant relief to a weary body, while the medicinal benefits of herbs like marshmallow root work their comforting magic on your throat. You gotta love a product designed to support healthy digestion that goes by the name Smooth Move. And Nighty Night is a sleep aid that combines valerian root and passionflower to promote relaxation and a good night’s rest. While the names may be playful, these teas are serious about delivering results through the healing properties of plants.

3. Local Beginnings, Global Reach—with Sustainability at the Core

Don’t let those humble roots make you underestimate the global impact of Traditional Medicinals. While it might’ve started in a sleepy hippie town, Traditional Medicinals scaled its mission to offer high-quality herbal wellness but always stayed true to its roots. Their commitment to sustainability and ethical sourcing is at the heart of everything they do. Traditional Medicinals is a B-Corp and committed to preserving the planet with FairWild standards for wild collection. They invest in their sourcing communities whether it’s building schools, providing access to clean water and healthcare, or protecting biodiversity. One of the company’s most ambitious goals is to have 80% of its herbs Fair for Life-certified by 2030, a standard that supports fair wages, working conditions, and environmental sustainability. Traditional Medicinals goes the extra mile to give back to the people and places that make their products possible.

4. A Favorite Among Celebrities, Parents, and Wellness Gurus Alike

From busy parents looking for natural remedies to soothe their kids’ coughs to world-famous singers like Ariana Grande and Dave Matthews, Traditional Medicinals has a broad and loyal following. From the concert hall to the carpool lane, folks swear by Throat Coat to help keep their vocal cords in peak condition. The blend of organic licorice root and slippery elm bark provides a soothing effect to top performers of every type. 

Image courtesy of Traditional Medicinals

5. From Teas to Lozenges and Beyond

Traditional Medicinals has expanded its product line far beyond teas to include lozenges and capsules with medicinal goodness. Today, the brand offers a wide range of wellness solutions, including immune support (Immune Zoom), to digestive health (Roasted Dandelion Root) to sleep support (Nighty Night) to everyday wellness (Spearmint). Their portfolio includes more than 60 herbal remedies that address diverse wellness needs, helping to improve many aspects of life naturally.

And the company continues to introduce new products that respond to the evolving needs of people looking for relief from contemporary challenges. The Stress Ease tea line is nature’s answer to managing stress in a hectic world, which is something we could all use a lot more of these days. With custom blended adaptogens and nervines, the Stress Ease line offers brews tailored for focus, immunity, and tension relief. In the end, Traditional Medicinals offers plant medicine and a simple answer to a simple question: What kind of wellness are you looking for today? With products that range from plant-powered teas to soothing lozenges, the brand has been helping people naturally care for themselves for decades. And as cold and flu season arrives, there’s no better time to make them a part of your self-care routine.