Portland tea maker Steven Smith dies at 65

Steven Smith, a Portland-based entrepreneur who helped develop the U.S. market for specialty tea blends by co-founding the Tazo brand now owned by Starbucks Corp., has died. He was 65.

He died on Monday at his home in Portland, according to his daughter, Carrie Smith-Prei. The cause was complications from cancer, she said in a telephone interview.

The U.S. Navy veteran entered the tea business after returning from the Vietnam War in 1971 and took high-end tea drinking to mainstream consumers across America. With his companies Tazo Tea, Stash Tea Co. and Steven Smith Teamaker, Smith forged a reputation as a pioneer who added refined tea brands to the menus of the nation’s restaurants.

“I felt that by increasing the quality of the product inside, that we could fundamentally change the way people felt about tea,” he said, according to a 2012 interview on the Portland Food and Drink website.

Starbucks, the world’s biggest coffee-shop chain, bought Tazo Tea in 1999, five years after Smith created the brand. The Seattle-based company offers almost 40 varieties of black, green and herbal teas under the Tazo brand through its more than 20,000 locations worldwide, according to its website.

After agreeing to buy Atlanta-based Teavana Holdings Inc. in 2012, Starbucks began to replace Tazo teas with products from its more recent acquisition, according to a 2014 article on the website of Canadian broadcaster CTV.

Steven Dean Smith was born on May 29, 1949, in Portland to Daniel Smith and the former Verla “Babe” Slick, according to his daughter.

After dropping out of Portland State University, Smith joined the U.S. Navy and served on the USS Hancock aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War. After his discharge, he tapped the growing trend in organic living and managed a health food store in Portland. He then went into business with Steve Lee and became a partner in Stash Tea.

Stash had annual revenue of $10 million and became one of America’s largest specialty-tea companies, according to the Oregonian. It was sold to Japan’s Yamamotoyama Co. in 1993.

The following year, he started Tazo Tea, selling blends with New Age packaging carrying names such as “Zen” and “Awake” for $4.49 a box, more than double the price paid for most other tea brands in the U.S., according to a 2014 article in Portland Monthly magazine. Starbucks bought Tazo for $9 million and Smith remained at the company until 2006, when he retired to the south of France.

Coming out of retirement a year later, Smith started Steven Smith Teamaker, with a special focus on the origins of each product’s exact ingredients, allowing consumers to read on the packaging what they were drinking. With a staff of about 30, the company sells its tea through 2,000 U.S. stores, including Williams-Sonoma Inc. and Whole Foods Market Inc. outlets, the magazine said.

Smith’s survivors include his second wife, the former Kim DeMent, and their son, Jack Smith, 16. Carrie Smith-Prei is Smith’s daughter from a previous marriage, to the former Teri Schwarz.

His wife, who co-founded Steven Smith Teamaker, will provide “continuity” in leadership at the company “as Steve’s full partner in business as well as life,” according to a statement on its website.