- ''The following article is about the tea company; for Tazos from the 1990s fad game, see pogs.
Tazo Tea Company is a tea manufacturer and distributor based in Portland, Oregon, known for their "New age" style marketing and product labeling. For example, every box of tea is labeled as "blessed by a certified tea shaman".
Tazo Tea was founded in 1994 by Steve Smith (who retired from Tazo in 2006) along with his business partners Stephen Lee and Tom Mesher. Lee was the former CEO of the Stash Tea Company which he founded with Smith in 1972. Stash was sold in the fall of 1993 to Yamamotoyama, a Japanese tea company.
Smith used his corporate connections within the food services industry to convince many restaurants, food stores, and tea houses to carry the new Tazo Teas. Smith approached Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz in 1998 seeking further investment partners.
The company was purchased by Starbucks in 1999 for $8.10 Million USD.
The logo uses the Exocet typeface.
List of tea products
Below is a complete list of the tea products produced by Tazo as of March 2008. This list may become obsolete over time.
Black teas
Filterbag- Organic Chai Chai
- Earl Grey tea
- Decaffeinated Tazo Chai
- Awake
- Organic DarjeelingFull Leaf
- Montage
- Chai
- Earl Grey
- AwakeIced Teas
- Organic Iced Tea
- Tea Lemonade
- Tazoberry
- Mango
- Iced Tea with LemonTea Lattes
- Tazo Chai
- Decaffeinated Tazo Chai
- Organic Tazo Chai
- Tazo VanillaT-Disc
- Awake
White Teas
Filterbag- Berryblossom White
- Vanilla Apricot White
Green Teas
Filterbag- China Green Tips
- Organic Om
- Zen
- Envy
- Green Ginger
- Lotus
- Organic GreenFull Leaf
- Zen
- China Green TipsIced Teas
- Organic Iced Green Tea
- Giant Peach
- Plum Delicious
- Lemon Green
- Passion PotionTea Lattes
- Matcha
Herbal teas
Filterbag- African Red Bush
- Organic Red Apple
- Calm
- Passion
- Tazo Honeybush
- Lemon Maté
- Wild Sweet Orange
- Sweet Cinnamon Spice
- RefreshFull Leaf
- Mambo
- CalmIced Teas
- Lemon Ginger
- Simply Red
- Bramble Berry
- Wild OrangeTea Lattes
- Red Tea Latte
- Black Tea Latte
External links
- Tazo Homepage
- Official Online Store - Starbucks' Official Online Store.
- Startup Studio -Interview with Steve Smith on the founding of Tazo Tea.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Tuesday June 24, 2008 at 03:01:08 PDT (GMT -0700)
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