The Truth About TAZO Tea

Tazo Tea offered by the Starbucks machine has reeled in so many Americans to the new and exciting “Reincarnation of Tea.” We love it. And there is a reason we love it. If you researched a little on line, you may say it must be because of that ancient recipe inscribed on the Tazo Stone, unearthed in a cave, when the tides of the Red Sea were low due to earthquakes and lunar eclipses (as legend has it.) Perhaps you would think it exquisite because it was “blessed by a Tea Shaman,” as the packaging proclaims. Or maybe it is the multicultural, borderline hieroglyphic, quasi-ancient packaging that sucked you in.

But what if you knew the word Tazo isn’t even in the dictionary, because it is a made up word? What if you knew the Tazo Stone doesn’t exist, but a story shrouded in half truths to make it semi-plausible? What if you knew there is no such thing as a Tea Shaman, less those self proclaimed? Would you love the tea less?

The tea would likely still be loved because it has great merit with inventive new flavors and blends. But just as inventive: the marketing behind the Tazo storm that has someone somewhere probably wanting to become a Shaman or better, searching for the non existent Tazo stone!

Tazo: The Non-Word
Any Tazo related website will tell you that Tazo means “river of life” (in Romany) or “fresh” in Greek. That is humorous considering it isn’t in the English dictionary. (Interestingly, if it was in the dictionary, it would precede the word “Tea,”) So, where did it come from? According to the Corporate Design Website, which details the Tazo marketing origins, a creative director at Wieden and Kennedy named Steve Sandoz “invented the name “Tazo,” which sounded to him kind of ancient and exotic.”When I tried to come up with a real name,” Sandoz explains, “I recognized that any recognizable word carried meaning with it that would elicit some kind of reaction from people. But if I made up a name, it could mean anything I wanted. Tazo sounded a little like tea, but not exactly.” (http://www.cdf.org/issue_journal/tazo_tea.html)

Tazo Stone?
There indeed was an earthquake, or tectonic movement in the Red Sea in 1987, when the mysterious “Tazo Stone” was supposedly unearthed in a nearby cave. And NASA can validate a lunar eclipse that same year, as the Tazo “legend” proclaims. However, the stone isn’t likely going to show up anytime soon. As for the earthy packaging, or the artsy stone featured on Starbucks website, that too was the brainchild of fantastic marketing.

The Corporate Design Website also unveils the mystic history, a marketing dream. “After concocting the name, Sandoz says he immediately wrote out “ten really stupid definitions for it, and once I did that, I was convinced we should make up a history. When you think of other tea companies saying they had been making tea for the last 20, 30 years, well, Tazo could say we’ve been making it for the last 7,000. We could appropriate all of recorded history!”

In other words, the story of Tazo is a totally creative fabrication of fact and fiction. So, if you are looking for the Tazo stone…the web designer may be your closest link.

Steve Smith: Shaman?
The definition of Shaman is: “a person who acts as intermediary between the natural and supernatural worlds, using magic to cure illness, foretell the future, control spiritual forces, etc.” (dictionary.com) Though this mystical image is exactly what marketers played up, it is doubtful the man behind Tazo Tea, Steve Smith from Portland, Oregon is a “shaman” who acts as a messenger between the human and spirit world.

In fact, the name Steve Smith in itself hardly sounds like someone who would practice such rituals. Yes, he has been dubbed “a tea shaman,” in a very New Age way focusing on wholeness with herbs and grounding himself for years in the study of tea – but ask any scholar of Shamanism, a Shaman that does not make – nor is there any said certification to become such a “master,” if that is the thought behind the title.

If the name Steve Smith is new to drinkers of Tazo, here’s a quick run down. “Tazo Tea Company was founded in 1994. Based in Portland, Oregon, it was purchased by Starbucks in 1999 for millions. Take heart Tazo lovers, Smith may not be a Shaman as of old, but the guy totally knows tea.

According to ABC, Portland, “He (Smith) went door-to-door selling his teas before his company had a name. He described how he wanted each Tazo flavor to taste, and then made them that way. He embraced bold and irregular ingredients – ginger, lemon grass, black pepper, cucumber juice, dried hibiscus flowers. “I tasted teas and felt they should be stronger, gutsier and more intense, while others needed to be subtler,” he said. “I wanted to take some risks, raise the bar.”

For a most interesting interview with Steve Smith, check out this interview with Oregon Live. Perhaps, this will restore your faith in the origins of the tea. The man lives and breathes tea and his obvious passion shines: http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/05/five_questions_with_teamaker_s.html

Steve Smith may take tea to a new level, but unlikely that this “shaman” will be doing it as a messenger to the spirit world…no matter how many Tazo packages are “Blessed.” Blessed or not, odds are good that Tazo will still fly off the Starbucks shelf.

For this product, this American certainly doesn’t mind validating marketing genius, because the final truth about Tazo Tea is…it is a product worth noticing.

Don’t miss the hype! Visit: http://www.tazo.com/noflash.html

Resources:
http://www.freebase.com/view/en/tazo
http://www.mahalo.com/tazo-tea
History of Tazo Tea | eHow.comhttp://www.ehow.com/facts_5161777_history-tazo-tea.html#ixzz0tiTil3Bz
http://www.cdf.org/issue_journal/tazo_tea.html
http://www.cdf.org/issue_journal/tazo_tea.html
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/shaman
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=88266&page;=1
http://www.smithtea.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism
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