Steven Smith, co-founder of Tazo and Stash, passes away at 65
Steven Smith, the prolific entrepreneur and co-founder of Tazo Tea, Stash Tea and Smith Teamaker died at the age of 65. Smith started out selling herbs and coffee in the early 1970s, before turning to tea and building Stash into a one of the largest specialty tea companies with sales of $10 million. In 1993, the company was sold for an undisclosed amount to Yamamotoyama, a three-century-old Japanese tea company. His focus then turned to Tazo Tea, a quirky specialty brand with an appeal for increasingly health-conscious baby boomers. Starbucks bought the company for $9.1 million in late 1990s and turned it into a billion dollar brand, with Smith involved on the creative side until 2006. His latest venture was a specialty tea company called Steven Smith Teamaker that he co-founded with his wife Kim in Portland.