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Q & A - Tea Time

Q&A
Steve Smith of Steven Smith Teamaker talks about favorite varietals, business philosophies and what he learned from founding Stash and Tazo.

by Susan Segrest

When did you launch your tea company and shop in Portland, Oregon?

We opened in October 2009 in a 100-year old former blacksmith's shop. People can come in and see our staff making the day's selection of teas. We have loyal customers who come in often, but we won't let them buy their favorite tea until they've tried something else we've been blending, just to get their opinions.

What are you doing differently from Stash and Tazo?

In this company I can have my wife, Kim DeMent, as my partner. I couldn't have had that in either of my former businesses. I met her in 1994 when she interviewed for a job at Tazo. I told her she wasn't right for the position. But a few months later, after I'd gotten out of a relationship, I asked if she'd go out with me and she said yes.
It's a family business. My 12-year-old son folds boxes for six cents each. He likes tea and he'll get beakers out and make his own concoctions. Some of them taste better than others, but he really does know a lot of about tea.

Do you have any personal favorites?

I'm drinking a tea right now called Bungalow. It's a blend of first- and second-flush Darjeeling and has a toast, nutty character- floral, buttery, light, delicate and complex.

How many teas do you sell and where are they available?

This is a a highly edited line. My philosophy is to keep the number of SKUs at a low, manageable level. If you are selling a couple hundred teas, you have 180 teas that are old. Having said that, in order to make our blends we have to have varietal teas. My Brahman tea contains China Keemun, two different Ceylons and an Assam, an each one of those varietals is drinkable by itself. Since we have those ingredients, we offer them in the shop and what we don't use in our blends, we'll package the sachets.
We also sell our teas at stores such as Williams-Sonoma, Fairway, Gourmet Garage and Wegmans.

Are there any new packaged teas coming out?

We are doing special teas, Good Morning and Good Night, for Eddie Bauer that hit stores in November. We added Douglas fir to include some local terroir to the blends. This time around with my tea company, I want to have control over all aspects of the business, from blending to pacakaging the tea, That gives us incredible flexibility for handling special projects and customers.

If you knew you were eating your last mean, would tea be a part of it?

Yes. I would have this penne alla vodka sauce that my wife makes along with a glass of Italian wine. I'd finish with a cup of Oregon peppermint tea because it would remind me of 1975, when I first started harvesting peppermint and really began the tea business.

Susan Segrest is a contributing editor to Specialty Food Magazine.