The Spice & Tea Exchange of Guilford

Great customer service and incredibly helpful. They have such a large variety of teas and spices. The teas smell wonderful and are so fresh. If you cannot find what you are looking for there, they are kind enough to help by calling other stores to see if they may have it. Great place; great people.

Some tweaks needed, but worth a visit.
I happened upon this place on the adorable Guilford Green. It is nicely kept, very clean, and with beautiful presentation. They have an entire wall of flavored salts, any variety of peppercorns, spices, and teas. Lovely fun items like salt slabs and tea accessories. It was amazing how much was in such a small space without looking cluttered.
TWEAKS: The tweaks needed were in the staff knowledge, and in the lack of quality «real» and organic teas & organic ingredients.
The staff were VERY courteous, but the girl helping me had very little knowledge about tea. Considering tea is in the name of the place I was surprised that not only did they not stock one Pu-​erh tea, (any tea shop should have at least one) but she didn’t even know what Pu-​erh is. I also asked her if her Kombucha brewing customers had any teas they preferred to use and her reply was «we don’t sell Kombucha» again, as a tea seller you would want to know what teas to steer someone towards when they ask about Kombucha, a pretty common use for teas.
Finally I decided to buy something, there were clear prices on everything, but I wasn’t asked how much I wanted. After seeing her filling a bag very full of a spice I will use fairly infrequently, I said that was enough, but, only at that time was I told there was a 1oz minimum required. This should be communicated to customers before packaging. «How much would you like? There is a one ounce minimum, would you like more?» For me this was a situation wherein it was way way too much herb and I may have opted not to buy any, but then I was in an awkward situation and felt it would be embarrassing to not buy it after she had already filled a bag. For other customers, it might actually increase sales to ask what a customer what tey want and if they want more. «How many ounces would you like.» Might be a great way to ask.
The ingredients: it’s a very small shop, but, there was either no organics or so few I didn’t see them. A lot of the teas list «Natural» flavoring, which is a complete misnomer and actually not natural in any colloquially accepted use of the term. It’s a wealthy area and I think it would support some higher quality choices that don’t rely on the misleading boost of a natural flavor, and this area would likely support more organics.
Overall I would come here again now that I know there is a minimum amount required, and I can make an informed choice.