| Tazo Tea Company | |
| Type: | Subsidiary |
| Industry: | Beverage |
| Foundation: | in Portland, Oregon |
| Founder: | Steven Smith[1] |
| Location City: | Kent, Washington |
| Area Served: | Global |
| Products: | Teas and herbal teas |
| Num Employees: | Approximately 50 (2010) |
| Parent: | LIPTON Teas and Infusions |
| Location Country: | United States |
| Homepage: | www.tazo.com |
Tazo Tea Company (TAZO) is a tea and herbal tea blender and distributor founded in Portland, Oregon. It is now a LIPTON Teas and Infusions division and is based in Kent, Washington.
Tazo Tea was founded in 1994 by Steven Smith. The manufacturing and distribution was maintained by North American Tea & Coffee, a Canadian-based food manufacturing company.[2]
Tazo approached then Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz in 1998, seeking further investment partners. The company was purchased by Starbucks in 1999 for $8.1 million.[3]
Starbucks opened the first Tazo-branded tea shop in November 2012.[4] It closed a year later and was converted into a Teavana store.[5]
In November 2017, Starbucks sold Tazo to Unilever for $384 million.[6]
Unilever reached an agreement in November 2021 to sell the majority of its tea business to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for €4.5 billion.[7] This included the Tazo business. The sale was completed in July 2022, with the new company named LIPTON Teas and Infusions.[8]
The company uses "New Age"-style marketing and product labeling. For example, every box of tea was once labeled as "blessed by a certified tea shaman" and an original tag line was "The Reincarnation of Tea."
Until 2013, the logo used the Exocet typeface, slightly modified. For example, the T in Tazo was changed for readability purposes in 2006 by sliding the cross-piece toward the top of the letter.