Hip Tea Company Founder Stimulates Sales

PORTLAND, Ore. — The founder of one of the world’s most seemingly laid-back tea companies sounds as though he’s had a cup too many, percolating rapid-fire thoughts into his car phone about microbrews and loose-leaf, concentrates and frozen tea-on-a-stick.

“The concept I’d thought about was this sort of timeless, ancient, new, forward-looking, backward-looking type of feel,” explained Steven Smith, the 47-year-old president and “tea master” behind Tazo, a Portland-based beverage company that will sell a projected 30 million bags of tea this year.

“It’s many, many cultures coming together. The very traditional side, smashed together with the eclectic, risky element of tea, which is the alchemistic side. What I wanted to portray was something right out of my lab, very Merlin-esque, that embodied the feelings of Marco Polo, alchemy, science and archeology.”

No short order. But that was the creative formula behind Tazo, a small company that has come far in three short years in creating a high-concept line of premium microbrewed teas and herbal infusions (read “herbal teas”) in the java-crazed Northwest.

Then again, this is a different kind of tea company.

Study the ingredients on Tazo’s hip, hieroglyphic packages and tucked among the blackberry leaves and rose petals, the saffron and lemon verbena, you’ll find each box contains “the mumbled chantings of a certified tea shaman.”

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Here is a company that labels its specialty tea blends names such as Awake (an invigorating breakfast tea), Zen (an enlightening blend of exotic green teas and herbs) and Refresh (Northwest mints and fragrant botanicals.)

It’s a fine, funny line they walk. Halfway embracing the soothing tones of New Age mysticism, while poking a little irreverent fun--”9 out of 10 shamans prefer Tazo,” a sign in their lobby declares.

The copy on their boxes even makes them chuckle. They’re the J. Peterman catalogs of the tea world--all deep, breathy copy and imaginative intrigue.

But don’t get the wrong idea. There’s really more Madison Avenue than Maharishi going on here.

And no one is coy about it. From the beginning, the intent was to create a premium tea--the same league as upper-end microbrew beer, coffees or ice cream--where price was really no object. They wanted the best tasting tea that money could buy, that would appeal to a market ranging from “BMWs to Birkenstocks.”

With capital and a heavy-hitting design team--including ad agency Wieden and Kennedy, and Sandstrom Design--the concept took shape. The resulting funky, updated-ancient packaging look has been a big hit, winning the 1996 London International Advertising Award for “Best Package Design Tea.” Tazo also snagged awards for “Best Product Line” from the Specialty Coffee Assn. in 1995 and 1996.

Although the company declines to release sales figures, a trade journal projected annual sales last year at more than $4 million.

Their teas have infiltrated corporate cafeterias from Nike and Eddie Bauer to IBM and Microsoft. They’ve found their way to upscale hotels to ski resorts to Harvard University. Last week, Smith was in New York, helping install a Tazo tea bar in the Jacob Javits Convention Center.

“We tripled our sales our second year,” said CEO Tal Johnson, who joined the company in 1995 to manage the business end of operations. “This year, we’ll double again.”

In the past three years, Smith has concocted about 80 different tea, fruit and herb formulas that are now distributed to more than 5,000 restaurants, cafes, resorts, supermarkets, specialty and natural food stores throughout the United States, Canada and abroad.

In the end, the question remains: Is this high-concept tea or high-end hype?

The proof, the people at Tazo insist, is in the cup. Smith has prided himself on the originality of his blends, the potency of the flavors.

“I decided I would use more flavoring, put more tea in a tea bag. Because ‘just enough’ is not enough. It’s got to be plenty,” he added. “Living in an environment where so many people walk down the street with a beverage in a paper cup, I knew what I had to do.”