To elevate every moment above the mere so what, we blend craft and creativity with uncompromising good taste. What if wakes us up in the morning and keeps us dreaming all day—forever looking for ways to bring you a truly exceptional tea experience.
In this spirit, we handcraft tiny batches of exquisite full-leaf teas and botanicals. Nurture deep-rooted friendships with the tea world's finest suppliers. Work happily in concert with artisans who will not settle for less. The timeless gift of what if created Smith in the first place, and it still guides us today. Great answers flow from this one little question.
Raise your cup, raise your sights, and enjoy.
Our Most Uncommon Approach
As a Smith teamaker, you know — in the cup, it's all or nothing. You must have good tea, carefully handled, and made with imagination.
Tasting and testing again and again — sometimes as many as 10 iterations. To protect every delicate leaf and blossom, you make each small batch by hand, under your own roof.
And you constantly ask yourself, what might make this better? Trying fresh culinary ideas, trading notes with friends, pushing yourself through creative mashups with like-minded makers and mixologists, letting the lightning strike.
the origin of a teamaker
Steven Smith wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. But he used one every day to change the way Americans drink tea forever. Quietly humorous and charismatic, with a slight smile and twinkle in his eye, Steve got his first taste of the world's second-most-consumed beverage as a kid at his grandmother's house in Portland, Oregon. After high school and Vietnam, he got into natural foods and co-founded Stash, the world's first specialty tea company.
From Stash, he became the wizard of Tazo — "the reincarnation of tea" — and made more waves with a mind-blowing mix of Merlin the Magician meets Marco Polo. After selling the company to Starbucks, Steve found himself in the mood for retirement. So he moved his young family to France.
The a-ha moment
Enchanted by the friendships he enjoyed with his neighborhood chocolatier, baker and perfumier in Avignon, he emailed his old creative team:
"I have an idea for another tea company. But this time, we’re going to do it small, buy only the best tea on the market and blend it with total transparency in our hometown of Portland, Oregon.” And so, after "a year of scarves and 2-hour lunches," he moved home and once again picked up his favorite tasting spoon — a big-bellied, sterling silver antique found in a stall in Tinsukia, Assam. Steve's vision was haute tea couture. Extra-small-is-beautiful. And with characteristic humility, he rejected the title of tea master, and chose to be simply “teamaker”.
Which is how, in 2009, the signature blends of Steven Smith Teamaker were born in a Northwest Portland blacksmith's shop.
It's only natural that a company begun by a true original would prize origin, mastery and imagination more than anything else. So, as you make your own personal batches — one perfect cup at time — we invite you to raise a cup to our founder. And merrily carry on.
