Photo by David Johnson

Our very own Steve Smith was featured on the cover of this month’s Entrepreneur magazine. The story of Steve’s history in the tea world is recounted in an article entitled “The Brewsmith”. The feature chronicles Steve’s accomplishments in the tea industry, a journey that began nearly 40 years ago in the peppermint fields of Oregon. Editor-in-Chief Amy Cosper compares Steve to Richard Branson or Bill Gates stating “these are the innovators who capture zeitgeist and turn it into an unforgettable experience”.

The article is not just about the man who founded the company; the tea also shares in the spotlight. Author Bruce Schoenfeld compares the Smith teabags to “gorgeous miniature pieces of art”. Our No. 39 Fez makes an appearance on page 33 in its red-carpet ready string-tie box.

The magazine is available at newsstand now, and online here. Alternatively, come on down to the tearoom and read our copy over a cup of one entrepreneur’s dreams.

Corey Arnold for The Wall Street Journal

STEVEN SMITH at his tea salon, Steven Smith Teamaker, in Portland, Ore.

Thomas Twining. Thomas Lipton. The Bigelows. And Steven Smith?

Hardly a household name, Mr. Smith is one of the biggest players in modern tea history, holding a key role in what’s been a renaissance in the U.S., with tea sales soaring to about $7 billion this past year from less than $1 billion in 1990. He’s responsible for many of the original blends for two top-shelf brands: Stash, now owned by the Japanese company Yamamotoyama; and Tazo, which Starbucks bought in 1999. His own company, Steven Smith Teamaker, sells small-batch teas in restaurants and stores like Williams-Sonoma, Zabar’s and even Eddie Bauer.

Quality leaves are essential to good tea, but so too are the expertise and imagination of the person creating the blends, said tea-expert James Norwood Pratt, author of the definitive “Tea Dictionary.” “In no generation in the past 5,000 years have we had more than a few people like Steven Smith. He makes astonishingly good blends,” Mr. Pratt said.

Since his start selling herbal botanicals from a health-food shop in the 1970s, Mr. Smith, 62, has honed his knowledge of what good tea leaves taste like. Over the years, he has traveled to India, Sri Lanka, China, Ethiopia, Egypt, Sumatra and South Africa, spending weeks in a region doing three tastings a day, with 200 cups per tasting.

Mr. Smith said that he picks a base—a black or a green leaf—and then thinks about flavors he has recently tasted or smelled that intrigue him. One tea, “Meadow,” with actual pink rose petals in its mix, was inspired by walking through the Portland Rose Garden in Portland, Ore., and smelling raspberries. Another that he created for Eddie Bauer includes dried Douglas fir needles to give a campfire taste. Intrigued by some bamboo growing outside his office, he’s tried adding bamboo leaves to a green tea and spicing it with ginger. He’s currently experimenting with aging teas in Pinot Noir and whiskey barrels: The teas absorb the moisture from the barrels and give off the alcohol’s scent.

Sometimes Mr. Smith tastes the ingredients individually and then mixes them with spoonfuls of tea, paying attention to how the look and smell changes when the tea is steeped, or infused in water. He writes down the formulas in a black notebook as he goes. Other times, when he’s on a plane or waiting in his car at a gas station, he comes up with the formulas in his head and writes them down, specifying how many grams or drops, without tasting them until they’re blended. He tries to avoid ingredients that taste and smell perfumed—oily and overly floral—and draws a distinction between herbs that taste “vegetative” and those that taste “brothy.”

Not all of his blends have been successful. After Starbucks bought Tazo, Mr. Smith stayed on for a few years. During that time he created a concentrated caramel tea latte formula that included very expensive teas from Darjeeling, India, and burnt-caramel sauce from a gourmet chocolate company in San Francisco. He said it tasted great, but when it shipped across the country the altitude caused the butterfat in the blend to clump, and Starbucks nixed it.

Born in Portland, Mr. Smith said that his strongest tea memory is drinking sweetened Red Rose at his grandmother’s after school, the whole house filled with the aroma. In high school he discovered chamomile tea in smoky, cool, dark coffeehouses. After three military tours in Vietnam and a stint at the natural-food store in Portland, he blended his first herbal tea in 1975 at Stash Tea, in which he was an early partner. “I learned as I went. It was a high-wire act,” he said.

At the back of Steven Smith Teamaker’s ivy-covered brick Portland tea salon is a blending room, or “lab,” with long metal tables and teapots. One teapot reads: “A Day Without Tea Is a Day Without Joy.” Mr. Smith said that’s true even on days when he tastes 200 teas of the same type made in the same week from the same region from a number of different producers. “It’s challenging to keep the taste buds engaged, but it keeps them sharpened,” he said.

Write to Nancy Keates at nancy.keates@wsj.com

Here’s Tiffany:  Retail Renegade, Photographer and Tea Maven. Tiffany will  graciously serve you a flight of tea or may be found with a cap on packing boxes.

Q: Best cup of tea you’ve ever had?

A: Milk Tea in the mountain tea houses of Nepal, Chai bought on Indian railway platforms, hot Apple Tea in even hotter Eastern Turkey, High Tea in London (served with champagne!), Darjeeling Tea with Steve, Kim and our boys in Darjeeling, and Red Bush Tea in South Africa.

Q: Worst cup of tea?

A: Yak tea (also called Tibetean tea) in Nepal. Absolutely vile. Black tea, yak butter and salt – an acquired taste I never acquired.

Q: Which famous figures in history would you most like to have tea with?

A: Dorothy Parker. You can’t go wrong with a woman who said, “If you can’t say something nice about someone, sit next to me”.

Q: What do you most hope to read in the tea leaves?

A: I don’t read tea leaves, I read books like a normal person.

Q: What do you think about while your tea is steeping?

A: Ha ha. As if I have time to “think” while the tea is steeping. I’ve got a dishwasher to unload, clothes to fold, a certain child’s breakfast to make . . . well, you get the picture.

Q: What gets you really steamed?

A: Cruelty to animals.

Q: What’s your motto?

A: “I have found out there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” Tom Sawyer Abroad (Mark Twain)

A: What is your auto?

A  Land Rover Discovery. It is my one of my dream cars (my other dream car? a Land Rover Defender). When I was young(er) and backpacking around the world I met a guy in Istanbul who’d driven his 1952 Land Rover to India and was headed back to England. Okay, I mainly drive my car between Beaverton and Portland and will likely never drive it to India but it gives me a little thrill to know I could.

Q: Do you have any bumper stickers on your auto?

A: I love bumper stickers! They allow a person to be preachy from the safety of a moving vehicle. My car sports one bumper sticker, “A dog is for life, not just for Christmas”.

Q: What is the shortest path to peace?

A: 42.

Q: If you were a tea bush, what kind would you be?

A: Is this a trick question?

Photo courtesy of Elaine Lowry ¦ SapphireStudio

By Ingrid Velmonte

I just returned to DC from Portland, OR, where I attended the2011 Net Impact Conference. It was my first visit to the Pacific Northwest, and I was enchanted by the city right away. Everywhere I happened to eat had delicious food, public transportation was easy to use and my hotel had recycling bins in the guest rooms, as well as complimentary Stumptown coffee in the lobby. One of the cool things about the conference was its focus on the host city, from having Congressman Earl Blumenauer welcome everyone on Friday morning to offering tours of local businesses, to design-thinking workshops geared toward addressing Portland-based companies’ and nonprofits’ sustainability challenges.

A very interesting conference panel featured an important industry in the Pacific Northwest region: beverages. “Coffee, Tea, Wine & Beer: Sustainability in the Pacific Northwest Beverage Industry” had key representatives of each drink choice:

• Christian Ettinger, Brewmaster/Owner, Hopworks Urban Brewery
• David Griswold, President and Founder, Sustainable Harvest Coffee
• Michele Martin, Program Manager – Carbon Reduction Challenge, Low Input Viticulture and Enology, Inc. (LIVE)
• Steven Smith, Founder and Teamaker, Smith Teamaker

The panel moderator, Kristen Rainey, was herself involved in her graduate school Net Impact chapter and is now Director of Brand Management-Sustainability at Sodexo. Ms. Rainey led the discussion on common threads of promoting sustainability in each type of beverage company.

Supply chain and data aggregation are a big focus for Griwold’s Sustainable Harvest, which is a certified B Corporation. Two thirds of the company’s operating expenses are spent on training and infrastructure, with a focus on the middle of the supply chain that connects coffee farmers to consumers. One thing they do is invest in iPads and app development to help farmers easily input data on their crops and learn about agronomy, quality control and finance. All of this increases transparency and traceability in the coffee supply chain. The company also brings its supply chain partners together for its annual Let’s Talk Coffee conference. Ultimately, farmers are able to use technology to obtain certifications such as Organic, Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance, and coffee consumers like myself have more assurance about where our imported drinks come from.

This type of relationship management with suppliers is evident among HUB, LIVE, and Smith Teamaker. Traceability is also a premier aspect of Smith’s teas, which can be researched on the company website according to batch number. Smith is a seriel entrepreneur who has already found success in starting Stash and Tazo teas, so browsing through his new company’s website feels like you’re learning from him directly.

While Sustainable Harvest and Smith Teamaker employees are based in Portland and travel the world for their product ingredients, Hopworks operates its brewery and a new bike bar in the city, and LIVE works with vineyards and wineries in the Pacific Northwest. LIVE’s Carbon Reduction Challenge certification enables wine businesses in Oregon and Washington to benchmark and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Hopworks makes organic beer and offers sustainable locally-grown food, and incorporates sustainability in its buildings and operations. The company’s website even lists which ingredients are sustainable as well as all the ways the brewery, kitchen, building and landscaping are sustainable, also listing vendors where appropriate. Publicizing sustainability whether through certification labels or other marketing channels have great impact as well.

It was great learning about how various beverage companies in Portland approach sustainability and how their impacts are both local and global. From certifications to building components, all four panelists showed that sustainability can be addressed at any point in the supply chain and that consumer-facing companies and products in particular can do much to promote a sustainable culture in how beverages are made and enjoyed. Cheers.

Ingrid Velmonte is a 2012 MBA Candidate at Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business. She is on the board of the school’s Net Impact chapter.

Photo©TiffanyTalbott

Meet Amy: Connecter of all the dots, pillar of strength and organization, future CEO of  Smith Teamaker

Q: What was your happiest time drinking tea?

A: With my granny while watching Gone With The Wind.  2 bags of Lipton in a tiny china teacup with 2 teaspoons of sugar and a quarter cup of milk….fond memories with my matrilineal elder…and sore teeth.

Q: Which famous figures in history would you most like to have tea with?

A: Nadia Comaneci so she could show me how she does this amazing move on the uneven parallel bars.  Even if it was performed in the year I was born!

Q: Which famous living person would you least like to have tea with?

A: A certain recent, past president who will remain nameless.  I like having a conversation with people that can think for themselves and speak in complete sentences…and don’t need a prompter to make the attempt!

Q: What do you most hope to read in the tea leaves?

A: Where my travel path will lead next….I’m thinking Nigeria, Kenya, Paupa New Guinea?

Q: What do you least want to see in the tea leaves?

A: An image of a large centipede.

Q: What do you think about while your tea is steeping?

A: I watch the string and tag swirl round and round and practice waking meditation…..really!

Q: What gets you really steamed?

A: Getting a door closed in my face.  I always shout out “Thank you!!!”  Manners go a long way.

Q: What is your motto?

A: Walk in other people’s shoes…it’s a great grounding experience.

Q: What is your auto?

A: SE Asian made all the way.  Small stature people, oddly lots of leg room.

Q: What is the shortest path to peace?

A: Big ears and a patient heart

Q: If you were a tea bush, what kind would you be?

A: A really, really old one….would love to live for hundreds of years just to see how the world changes around me but be totally uninvolved except providing the greatest tasting beverage on earth!

Photo courtesy of Tiffany Talbott¦SapphireStudio 

Photo by Tiffany Talbott

Hello all friends of Smith Teamaker! I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of working part-time at Smith since last Christmas, and just last week I had a work-time revelation. I used to not be a big hibiscus fan. I liked the idea, but the actuality was often too astringent for my tastes. Then I met Big Hibiscus. The deeply crimson flowers themselves are beautiful, both to the eye and the nose, and the blend is at once rich and light, floral and fruity, with the slightest touch of the aromatic. I love it.

We’ve had a lovely spell of much needed 83-91 degree days here in Portland, and this kind-of weather brings margaritas to my mind. So there I was, sitting on the line while we were running BH, and it hit me: these flavors would be GREAT in a margarita! On the way home that night I stopped and picked up a bottle of tequila and some lemons and limes along with my dinner sundries. After a little tinkering, I came up with a recipe I’m pretty excited about, and I thought I’d share it here in hopes that some of you would enjoy it as much as me. The resulting cocktail is unique and delicious, as well as being the most beautiful shade of crimson I’m calling it an Indian Summer in hopes that our beautiful weather will stick around for a while before the rains return. Keep your fingers crossed for us. Best, Elizabeth

Indian Summer

6 tea bags Smith Teamaker Big Hibiscus tea

hot water

5 lemons

5 limes

simple syrup (I’ll explain)*

kosher salt

tequila (I like a silver as opposed to gold tequila for this drink)

triple sec (optional)

Bring water to a full boil. Pour 2 cups over the 6 teabags. Allow to steep overnight in the fridge (covered). Juice lemons and limes. I like to include some of the pulp, but make sure to strain out the seeds. You should end up with about a cup and a half of lemon/lime juice. Add this to the chilled, concentrated tea (having removed the teabags and discarded them), and add simple syrup to taste, probably about a half to ¾ of a cup, but it will depend on your tastes and how astringent your citrus is. I favor a pretty balanced mix of sweet to sour, but factor in your salted glass (which I didn’t on the first try and wound up with an overly sour, salty drink) and make it perhaps a little sweeter than you think you might need. Once you have the perfect mix, take a glass of your choice (I found I like a stemmed wine glass for this drink), smear one of your used lime rinds around the rim and dunk it upside-down on a plate of kosher salt to coat the rim. Fill with ice, add a shot of tequila, and top off with your elixir mixer. You can also add a dash of triple sec when you’re finished. If you do, remember it’s super sweet, so just a little. I would have added some to mine, but we just moved and either I can’t find the bottle in the chaos, or it didn’t make the cut when everything got down to the wire (more than likely, as I was ready, in the end, to throw out everything I owned rather than pack another seemingly useless thing). I do think the slight orange flavor in this liquor would be a nice addition, and will try it in the future.

*If you haven’t made simple syrup before, here’s how – it’s super simple! Take a 2 cups of hot water, the hottest from the tap will do, or you can bring water closer to a boil if you’re motivated. Pour a bunch of sugar in it, a cup to start with, and whisk it into the water until it’s all dissolved. Add some more, repeat. Do this until the water won’t dissolve any more sugar. If you make too much, don’t worry! It’s a great thing to keep on hand. I won’t go bad, and you can use it for your next cocktailing adventure.

Photo©TiffanyTalbott

Meet ML: Writer, cyclist, dragon boater and manager of production and packaging

Q: What was your happiest time drinking tea?

A: After a long day’s backpacking, relaxing and watching the sun go down.

Q: Which famous figures in history would you most like to have tea with?

A: . . . maybe  a cup of Lord Berg with Mike Tyson. . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5XFH36UdQ4

Q: Which famous living person would you least like to have tea with?

A: Rush Limbaugh, hands down.

Q: What do you most hope to read in the tea leaves?

A: Travel!

Q: What do you least want to see in the tea leaves?

A: Dismemberment?

Q: What do you think about while your tea is steeping?

A: “Remember to take your teabag out.  Remember to take the teabag out. Remember to take the teabag out. . . .”

Q: What gets you really steamed?

A: When I forget to take my teabag out.

Q: What is your motto?

A: ???

Q: What is your auto?

A: My bike!

Q: What is the shortest path to peace?

A: Through my stomach, most likely. Though I can’t speak for others. . .

Q: If you were a tea bush, what kind would you be?

A: Mao Feng. . .my fave!

Photo courtesy of Tiffany Talbott¦SapphireStudio

Photo©TiffanyTalbott

Meet Joe: artist, biker, strong silent type

Q: What was your happiest time drinking tea?

A: After A long day of painting, or before painting to put me in the right mindset.

Q: Which famous figures in history would you most like to have tea with?
A: I would like to talk painting over a cup of tea with John Singer Sargent, or Maybe Paul Cezanne.

Q: Which famous living person would you least like to have tea with?
A: Probably Lady Gaga

Q: What do you most hope to read in the tea leaves?
A: Symmetry

Q: What do you think about while your tea is steeping?
A: Too much.  I usually forget and get distracted with something else

Q: What gets you really steamed?
A:  Forgetting about my steeping tea

Q: What is your auto?
A: A single speed Takara prestige

Photo courtesy of Tiffany Talbott¦SapphireStudio

Photo©TiffanyTalbott

Meet Jill: Accounts and the fastest box folder this side of the Mississippi

Q: What was your happiest time drinking tea?

A: When Steve brought home tastings of his newly formulated Honeybush tea. I had recently been to South Africa and when I returned, brought him a package of loose Honeybush tea (I think it cost about 2 Rand which was probably .50 cents US at the time) from a grocery in LadyBrand. He told me that was the best leaf Honeybush he had tasted so far. Unfortunately, the packaging was lost and I had only brought one back for him so we weren’t able to use the particular brand. While I was in Africa, Honeybush and Rooibos were common like Lipton and Red Rose are here.

Q: Which famous figures in history would you most like to have tea with?
A: I would have a hard time choosing, so I would say a pot of tea with Oprah, The Beatles, Freddy Mercury and The Donald.

Q: Which famous living person would you least like to have tea with?
A: Any person with whom I already have had tea.

Q: What do you most hope to read in the tea leaves?
A: What my next adventure will be.

Q: What do you least want to see in the tea leaves?
A: What my next adventure will be.

Q: What do you think about while your tea is steeping?
A: How good some shortbread will taste with the tea.

Q: What gets you really steamed?
A: The status quo supporters.

Q: What is your motto?
A: Problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. A.Einstein

Q: What is your auto?
A: Leroy, The Big Blue Whale.

Q: What is the shortest path to peace?
A: Taking responsibility for your life and understanding that obstacles you face are merely creations to experience infinite expansion.

Q: If you were a tea bush, what kind would you be?
A: Melaleuca Alternifolia

Photo courtesy of Tiffany Talbott¦SapphireStudio