The Spice & Tea Exchange of Alexandria

I first came to The Spice & Tea Exchange while looking for a more modestly priced alternative to Teavana. TSTE has a different vibe and serves a different niche because tea is only a part of its offerings. They have a whole host of interesting spices and seasoning blends, and you’re able to mix up your own custom blends as well.
I have always found the staff to be super friendly and knowledgeable without being salesy. The three rows of teas in the back are sorted by tea type and they have a nice selection of things from lighter summer teas to more robust winter ones. I found the Berry White to be a little lacking in overall flavor, even with sugar added, but I’m a HUGE fan of the herbal Cinnamon Plum that I picked up on my last visit. The herbal Bonita Peach Rooibos falls somewhere in between and was an OK choice for the summer. They recommend mulling it into cider or wine, which I’ll definitely have to try.
One of the most interesting things here is the flavored sugars. Unlike the rock sugars that are $$ per ounce at Teavana, they are like regular sugar crystals but with fun flavors like Salted Caramel – a nice addition to a warm late-​season drink. I also like that you can buy tea by the ounce and mix your own blends. I haven’t purchased any of their spices yet, but if you check in on Unilocal,you can receive a sample spice!
This place is now a bit far from me, but certainly worth a visit if I’m in Alexandria.

The Spice & Tea Exchange is probably great if you don’t know what you want or are looking for a more obscure spice.
Otherwise, you are better off going (or ordering from) somewhere else. The teas and spices are quite overpriced and their tea selection is surprisingly limited.
Honestly, I thought this was a tourist trap until I saw some of the other reviewers say that it is a chain – Say, what?!

I learn something new everytime I come here. They always have samples out for you to try. Wish they could have a little more samples though. one of the teas I bought wasn’t good. Owner very friendly and pleasant, you could tell she has passion and love for teas, just like me. If in old town, stop by to check this place out, bet you wont leave without buying something :)

I love this place. My favorite place for tea. EVERYONE MUST GO!

Very nice. There is a pretty large collection of loose leaf teas, along with lots and lots of spices. The lady who was working when I went in was extremely helpful. It turns out the teas are by Rishi, which is a pretty good brand that’s also available in many upscale grocery stores. Unlike the grocery store, though, here they are in jars so you can smell them first and know what you’re getting.

Excellent, attentive customer service. Plenty of reasons to make this a priority stop on my next visit to VA. They also gave me a rewards card. I can’t wait to try the blueberry sugar I bought here.

Just go in right now if you are just outside walking by! Totally worth the visit.
I’ve been in several spice shops before but this place puts all others to shame. They have shelves upon shelves of spices, herbs teas, sugars, salts,…you name it. It was fun just touring the place and smelling AND TASTING some of their products. The staff are extremely friendly and really want your visit to be more of an EXPEARIENCE.
Try smelling the pizza mixed spice blend as well as Viks Garlic Blend.
As of this writing, if you check in you can get a free sample blend!
Military discount offered — 10%

great, helpful and friendly staff. could spend a lot of money (oh and time!) in this store, but the prices are actually not out-​of-​this-​world. good for people who are gluten free (like me!)

A friend brought me into this store while I’m visiting from out of town. I’ve been in other spice stores before, but Spice & Tea Exchange was amazingly stocked with so many interesting goodies for any food lover.
My favorite part about the store is browsing and smelling the different blends as it lets my wander on what tasty concoctions I could make with these items. Contrary to some of the others I’ve visited, I’m impressed with the variety here. Most places will focus on just salt, or oil, or tea, but Spice & Tea Exchange has just the right amount of everything including sugars. Their coconut sugar smelled amazing! Or there was the Baker’s Secret blend which comes in a small milling container of cocoa nibs, vanilla beans, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and maple sugar granules. I never could’ve imagined something like this to top desserts or add in cookie recipes.
Service is friendly and they’re very happy to help you out with any questions. We even took advantage of the Unilocal check-​in deal which allows you a free custom blend packet with a purchase of $ 10 or more.

I don’t this chain goes as far up north to reach us in New York but now every time I have come to dc I have stopped here. I love this little shop and all the great choices it provides. Yes it’s definitely expensive but for someone like me a once a year shopping spree won’t break the bank.
I love love love their chainilla tea blend. I buy about 3 canisters to take home each time. I add a little honey and it tastes like dessert. My bf loves their little sample options, we actually recieved one of their spicy hot chocolates that way and next time we will def be buying a bigger amount of it.
This time we also bought a few more spice blends and little nick nacks just because so many options looked so good. I’m excited to come back on my next trip.

Ummm, pricey I think. I prefer the one in Union Market. But the ambience was ok.

Very cute spice and tea shop in Old Town. Has tons of spices that you can chose from.

Do you cook? Are you within 30 minutes of this store? Have you been to this location?
If ‘yes’ to the first two, but ‘no’ on the third, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?
This store has made me wonder if I’m going to be able to pay all of my bills. The materials are THAT GOOD!
I bought pepper and a pepper grinder recently. Even mild pepper is INTENSE!
They let you open up and smell the containers. The staff is almost always friendly, and there’s a discount if you become a frequent shopper. Between you, me, and Unilocal here, I burn through True Ceylon Cinnamon (for baking, natch).
Drawbacks:
Employees don’t always know every spice they sell. Some spices have descriptions, but not all of them.
On one occasion, there was less than an ounce of ginger. I was willing to pay full price for what was remaining, but I was refused. This particular employee seems to know far less than any of the others.
This shop (I’m sure the others in the franchise do also) have a nice collection of blended spices — I’m partial to a fish blend whose name eludes me for the moment.
The quality (flavor) of my food has improved dramatically. I have friends I didn’t know I had asking when I can come over again.
If you cook, come here and grab one spice to try it out, I promise you won’t be disappointed!

My first introduction to The Spice and Tea Exchange was in Fort Worth and I loved it. So when I saw that there was a store in Alexandria I was real excited to check it out. I really enjoy going around and smelling the various kinds of teas as well as seeing the unique spices and sugars. I really appreciated the themed packages of teas and condiments that generally include three packets of teas, sugars, or spices that have some similarities in ingredients. I purchased the «Berry Presidential» collection that included two berry tea packets and one packet of raspberry sugar. Needless to say it made a great gift for my friend who loves tea and got a kick out of the «presidential» theme. I purchased in Fort Worth the stone of Himalayan pink salt without the Microplane Grater and what a mistake that was. I have dulled out two cheese graters as a result of my poor decision. If you are going to buy a salt stone spend the money for the grater while you are there. The price of the Microplane Grater is comparable to kitchen accessory stores at $ 12.95 (well worth it!). If you find yourself fascinated by something like Habenero Sugar but are unsure what to do with it just go to The Spice & Tea Exchange Store website that list recommended recipes for just about everything in the store. Oh, do not leave your military ID behind either. There is a military discount of 10% at this store.

I first came upon this chain in St Augustine, where I mistook it for a one-​off. Nope — there are many, many locations. And when it opened in Alexandria, as a prolific home cook, I was quite excited. That excitement has been, shall we say, dampened upon at least four visits to this location.
The last time I sent the Mister there, he responded that the market for fancy salts must be doing incredibly well to warrant the level of uninterested customer service and attitude he received. That sounded pretty much in line with every other experience we’ve had there.
«Jeff, Amy, Clay, Penny and Steve developed the Spice & Tea Exchange to bring to market our gourmet seasonings and spices, cooking herbs, gourmet teas, sugars, sea salts and signature TSTE’ products — blends and rubs made from TSTE’ secret recipes.» — from their webpage
Okay. Then I should be able to find the two less common — but not exotic — brown sugars I needed for the Mister’s birthday ‘Inglourious Basterds’ apple strudel, no? Negative. Not only did they not carry either of the two sugars, but we got quite a load of attitude for asking, and were helpfully told by the woman working there that they’d never even heard of one of the sugars. It seemed like a pretty big oversight for a store of this sort. We had other items on our shopping list, but the reception we received was so bratty, we had no interest in sticking around or spending our money.
We found the sugars at Balducci’s, along with just about every salt we’d seen in TSTE in Old Town. A specialty store like this really needs to work on its customer service, particularly in an economy not friendly to luxuries like 64 different kinds of salt. After multiple second chances, we won’t be back.

Employees not very helpful and fairly small selection of teas actually for a place with tea in their name. I took home a few packages of tea and purchased a tea infuser. The teas were ok– not really that great. One was too strong and the other was very generic. I tried the mango green and could not taste the mango as much as I wanted. Most of the pieces in this one were green so not sure where the mango flavor really showed through.
Other places to try and with better teas. They do have some tea accessories I have not seen in most places, but there are cuter things elsewhere.
Things look and smell fresh though and I was not interested in spices or sugars but if I was in a pinch and lived nearby I might try them out.

The Spice & Tea Exchange is like a little corner of what heaven must be –to me. Racks and tables are filled with savory scents, roots, seeds, and leaves. Jars and sachets with tiny ribbons and not so tiny dollar amounts line the shelves.
Salts, peppers and sugars are separated, as they should be. I thought I had a small dilemma on my hand when I was trying to decide which curry blend to purchase. I kept going back and forth between the jars, when I looked down to see a curry combo packet with all 4 varieties on sale. Yes, of course they’d thought of that.
I also purchased a rooibos/​chai tea blend and a couple of sugars as gifts. I couldn’t see myself purchasing much else, because I have everything in my cabinet. I won’t pay more for allspice, turmeric, anise or cayenne because it’s in a cute shop. Coconut & habanero sugars — now that I will pay for!
Drop in and smell for yourself. This place is great for gifts, and works as retail therapy for foodies…

I love love love The Spice and Tea Exchange for one reason: Truffle Salt. I like to put truffle salt on eggs, potatoes, cooked spinach, even on pizza. Other fun items are the loose leaf teas and flavored sugars. The Oolong Coconut tea is subtle but tasty and the coconut sugar is a nice addition to morning coffee or a pinch in rum n’ cokes.
The only thing that caught me off guard is it’s a chain and not a local store.

I spotted this place while wandering the streets of Old Town one evening. Reading the other reviews, I was a little shocked that this was considered overpriced, but this was my first experience buying this type of thing.
After seeing this was a tea shop, I stopped in because after recently returning from trips to Morocco and Germany, I found myself looking for a decent mint tea and others I had tried just didn’t cut it.
The woman working at the store was very friendly and helpful. I know nothing about tea, so I learned a lot. I ended up buying some peppermint and spearmint leaves, along with cinnamon and vanilla, so I could make my own blend. The total was around $ 15 and the results of using these ingredients I have been able to make some fantastic herbal infusions!

I’m so with Justin S. on the cost of products at The Spice & Tea Exchange. So thank goodness this place is a chain. We can blame the outlandish pricing on corporate malfeasance as opposed to the wrong-​headed policies of the two cute gals who run this particular franchise. One ounce of ground cumin for $ 2.29? I have a four ounce jar in my cupboard with a $ 3.95 sticker on it. $ 1.89 an ounce for poppy seeds? The nine ounce bag in my freezer says $ 4.50. So, clearly this is not the place to buy your bulk spices.
You know what The Spice & Tea Exchange *is* good for, tho? Gifties. That’s right. Hostess gifts, gifts for the gourmet in your life, gifts to yourself just because a coworker ganked your red stapler. Appealing spice samplers in clear-​topped tins laid out like paint palettes. Pretty mortars and pestles to decorate your kitchen counter. Handmade pepper mills. Cute tea kettle shaped tea infusers. It’s fun to peruse the merchandise, and the whole «country store» feel of the place creates a pleasant atmosphere. And even tho they’re too outrageously priced to purchase, the spices and teas in jars lining the walls make a lovely backdrop for your browsing.