The Stash Tea Company is a privately-held company headquartered in Tigard, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. Founded in 1972, Stash Tea originally operated out of an old Portland Victorian style house, supplying loose herbal teas and bulk herbs to natural food stores. Starting in 1975, the company broadened its focus to include bagged teas and then began to sell a full line of traditional, specialty blend and herbal teas directly to fine restaurants and through a mail order catalog to consumers. Today, Stash Tea is enjoying steady growth and has become one of the largest specialty tea companies in the United States, with products available through foodservice, grocery stores, tea and coffee shops, club stores, mass merchandisers, natural foods stores, mail order and the Internet. Stash Tea is also available in Canada and in several foreign countries.
The company derives its name from an entertaining aspect of tea folklore. In earlier centuries, tea was a valuable commodity traditionally transported by clipper ship. The ship's captain often was presented with some of the finest teas for his personal use. This supply was his "stash," stowed carefully as his "private reserve." Today, the term still is used to denote anything put away carefully because of its preciousness.
The Stash Tea Company offers a complete line of specialty teas: traditional black teas, flavored and spiced teas, herbal teas, green teas, white teas, organic teas, rare and exotic teas and specialty iced teas. The Stash Tea Mail Order Catalog offers more than 200 blends of tea, teapots, tea accessories, tea gifts and savory baked delicacies and sweets (gourmet cookies, scones, honeysticks, bread mix, jams). The company operates the largest specialty tea mail order business in the United States. The Stash Tea Mail Order Division processes thousands of requests for the catalog each month. A message printed on the back of every Stash Tea envelope invites consumers to send for a free catalog. As a result, Stash Tea has created an enviable database of loyal customers from this "no cost advertising" over the years.
Stash is also known for its pioneering work in helping to establish tea as a beverage of choice in restaurants, and helped pioneer the growing and cultivation of Oregon peppermint for tea, working with mint farmers back in the early 1970s. Stash was also one of the early web pioneers with a web presence beginning in 1995 that received many accolades and awards, and a thriving e-commerce business which has grown steadily over the years.
Stash Tea's emphasis on quality products and innovative marketing strategy has garnered widespread recognition for the company. Stash Kashmiri Chai was selected as a finalist for the 2000 NASFT (National Association For The Specialty Food Trade) Product Awards Competition in the Outstanding Beverage category. The competition is an annual event and is considered one of the most prestigious product competitions in the specialty foods industry. Stash received the Award of Excellence from the Fine Beverage & Food Federation for its Earl Grey and Premium Estate Iced Teas.
Stash has also garnered numerous Beverage Packaging Global Design Awards including a Silver Award for its Christmas Teas packaging in 2003; another Silver Award for the redesign of the Stash Premium Tea line in 2002, and for Stash Premium Loose Teas in 2001; Best of Show Award for the Stash Teas of India line in 2000; and a Silver Award for the Yamamotoyama line of authentic teas of China and Japan in 1998.
