The Spice & Tea Exchange

You can definitely spend more time in here than you bargained for! Especially because you have the opportunity to smell all the spices, tea, and sugar!
The two men working here were super nice and invited my mom and I to open up the jars and smell whatever spices we wanted. They also had an excellent selection of dry rubs, sugar, and tea. Most of the teas smelled so-​so but the spices were off the hook. They even had whole cardamom, vanilla bean, and nutmeg! Honestly some of the spices I’ve never encountered before so wandering around was a learning experience.
We stocked up on dried mushrooms, rose petals, cardamom, and truffle salt. There were so many yummy things it was hard to choose!
If you check in on Unilocal you can get 10% off your purchase. You also get 15% off your first phone order which we will definitely be doing because we don’t live in Oregon.

While in Portland the wife and I stayed at the Portland Marriott City Center, which is right next-​door to The Spice & Tea Exchange. Because we were often out, every time we passed by the shop, they were closed. But we passed by during more reasonable hours on our final day in the city and they were open, so we decided to check them out.
The shop has a variety of different spices, spice blends, teas and tea blends. I realize the shop is a franchise type shop, but they did have location specific blends and items, which I appreciated. While the variety is large, don’t expect to find more exotic spices like sumac, Espelette pepper, etc. And coming from Hawaii, I wasn’t really impressed by the tea selection, but to be fair, we have an enormous variety at home thanks to the large asian population.
I did find more than a few things to buy, however, and the employees were really friendly and really helpful. I’d definitely return to pickup stuff when in town again.

This has been my go-​to place for wonderful salts & blends. I have been a loyal customer for several years now. HOWEVER, yesterday I went downtown to buy my «usual» supplies and discovered that not only has the store recently changed ownership, they also raised their prices by more than 30% to match the pricing structure of their other stores in the SF Bay area…
Seriously? You just lost a loyal customer.

Love this place! A great selcetion of spices and blends. Prices low enough that you can try a bit of everything.

We visited this store in downtown Portland a while back; I have to admit as much as we enjoy spices, I didn’t start using our favorite the Northwest Salmon Rub Spice Blend until I’d run out of our last favorite. Oh my! I’m a salmon lover and the rub is the BEST addition! And now I’ve run out and need to order more as we do not live in Portland and were way too busy on our last trip to get downtown to buy more. It’s an inviting and friendly store. They give you enough space to meander through the store and enough advice when you’re ready.

Cool little location. We were exploring downtown Portland and stumbled across this tea shop. Our friend is a tea aficionado and so he was excited about this place. This place has a lot of spices and tea one can get for food or just a cup of tea. The spices here were really amazing in smell. We kept opening the bottles to smell the different spices and imagining what we could make with the spices. One should come here for the spices and rubs for cooking. A lot of them are more like pre-​made spices with labels rather than individual spices. The guy in charge of the shop that day was really nice and well knowledgeable about the tea and spices and was nice enough to ask us if we needed anything.

I remember getting in trouble in second grade because all I wanted to do was stop and sniff the bread as it came out of the oven during our Franz Bakery field trip (a Portland classic). I thought my teachers were out of their minds for dragging me through the rest of the tour, but I suppose it wasn’t wise to leave me near all the machinery. When I entered The Spice & Tea Exchange, they had signs up all over encouraging me to crack the various jars open and smell; that’s music to my inner seven-​year-​old ears (and heavenly scents to my inner seven-​year-​old nose).
I only had a short time before having to head home, so I probably didn’t give the store as much appreciation as it deserved. As I love tea the most, I concentrated my sniffing efforts towards their selection. I found a caramel pear flavor that had a gorgeous smell, and also found a vanilla Earl Grey tea that could also pass for a damn fine perfume. What little time I spent with the spices, salts and rubs I found enjoyable and was able to conjure up pictures of various dishes in my head where all of these options could be used.
The only thing that I found jarring about my visit was the gentleman clerk. When I walked in the store, he was outside smoking, and came in just a couple of minutes later. He started back to work without (as far as I could tell) washing his hands after smoking a cigarette. He did not greet me for a couple of minutes, and then all of a sudden asked if I was from Portland or elsewhere. I said no and was a native Portlander. He indicated he would be glad to help and also encouraged me to smell everything. I don’t know if he was tired or shy or what was going on, but I really felt uncomfortable with his customer service manner. He never smiled. I’m sure he’s probably an asset to the store, but he needs to ease up and leave the dark side for the light before I would be comfortable returning to the store to consider purchasing any items when I had more time.

Love this place! Indie was great with assisting us to find interesting and out of the box spices. We highly recommend everything they have to offer :-)

I LOVED this store! All of the delicious salts and herbs — the young lady working at the counter was very friendly and helpful. I loved the little recipe tips they had tucked into the displays too. A++

Awesome place… great selection of spices… friendly store. Visit the Madeira Beach, Florida location.

Stopped by to pick up some nice tea and an infuser. was in a hurry, so I just threw the infuser in my bag. When I got home I realized the box was empty; they must have used it for the display. This was mildly annoying, so I took a trip back a couple of days later to get the infuser. When I explained to the guy at the shop what had happened his reaction was «I don’t know if I believe you, you’re just some guy off the street». I honestly didn’t know what to say. A) I’m not sure how I was supposed to get there other than the street. B) I guess he’s right, I could have bought one, took it out and returned with an empty box in an attempt to get a free $ 8 infuser. He said MAYBE if I had a receipt, which I did and took out. This seemed to further irritate him but he went to the shelf and grabbed an infuser for me.
So in the end I got what I wanted, even though I had to waste half an hour and pay for parking. But I will never return to the shop. If they want to keep customers a better response would be an apology, and maybe even a free gift of some sort for my trouble. Even if I was lying they wouldn’t have someone out there who vehemently hates their business.

I love spices and spice stores. I’ve been to some that are bigger, but this place still stands out. In addition to some great spice mixtures (some quite unusual), they also have loose leaf tea, flavored sugars, and a huge variety of salts (flavors and types). Their selection of spices isn’t the biggest, but it did include two types I’ve not been able to previously find.
The employees are knowledgeable and they tend to serve out of bulk jars. This makes me optimistic that everything is relatively fresh, unlike individual jars that might move slowly.
If you are used to buying spices at the grocery store, you’ll be shocked how affordable things are here. If you are a connoisseur, you still might find something new.

This place is awesome! I have tried 7 – 8 of their seasonings and have loved all of them. I recommend the following: Black Truffle Salt, Chardonnay Oak Smoked Sea Salt, Pizza Seasoning… but MOST OF ALL the «Vik’s Garlic Fix». I put the garlic one on everything, but it especially good on pizza.
The seasonings are reasonable priced, and the more you buy the cheaper the prices become. The guy working the counter was really nice, and I am in love with this place!

It is a small wonderland for tea lovers.
You can smell all kinds of tea an buy in small portion as a taster.
I looooove their Berry Bouquet tea and Rooibos Chai tea.

I love tea what can I say and I’m not talking about the mass produced stuff you can buy in the grocery store. I happened to find The Spice & Tea exchange by walking by the store. While they do offer spices and salts as others have mentioned, I really wasn’t in the market for that.
The loose leaf teas section is in the back of the store and they offer some interesting mixes including some seasonal mixes. They did have a chocolate candy cane and a eggnog.
One of the nice things is that they have glass jars with the teas so that you could smell the tea. If your like me, you could probably spend too much time deciding what to buy and then too much money buying all of the different varieties. Luckily they sell the teas in 1 oz bags so you can save some money if you purchase 3 and you can try multiple kinds without breaking the bank.
I am looking forward to enjoying my Marrakesh Mint and especially the coconut oolong tea which smells heavenly.

Wonderful collection of spices, salts and teas. You can smell everything here and buy sample packs or larger portions if you love it that much. It’s absolutely worth checking out if you’re a budding or avid cook. Their selection can only be beat by a few. Plus the staff is so helpful and knowledgeable, you’re coming here for advice + the goods. Plus their tea selection is pretty good. A good combination of herbal teas combined with good classics. It’s definitely a one stop shop for all your spice + tea needs.

I love this store and made a special trip to stop by again. My spice cabinet overflows…
Last time I bought these flavored sugars, that were great for making home cocktails. I bought Tangerine and Strawberry. Those are so fun!
I picked up a bag of Bamboo Green Rice, which I cannot wait to try in a meal at home. I would have never thought of using it, but it sounds unique and divine.
I also picked up the Adobo Season and the French Grey salt, two things I found on my last trip that were very good and wanted again.

I love stopping in here and smelling the custom spice mixes. (Opening spices and smelling them is the only thing besides hunger that can even begin to motivate me to cook.) I can never resist buying a few spice mixes to take home and try. The sampler packs also make nice gifts for foodies or people that have everything.
I recommend the California Blend, the Herbal Garden grinder/​shaker, the Coastal Blend for fish, and well, anything that that smells good to you.
They have a great selection of teas, salts, and flavored sugars if any of those are your thing. And of course they have regular spices — more than one kind of cinnamon or vanilla or curry powder or saffron. Variety truly is the spice of life.
I’ve also picked up some nifty gadgets here — a mortar and pestle, and a flash-​cool iced tea pitcher. If you stop in and it seems crowded, there’s probably a tour group in, but don’t worry — they don’t stay too terribly long, so you’ll have time sniff and make your selections.

Attention those of you looking for who love salt: there are apparently eighty varieties of salt, at least, and all of them are well, salty and delicious.
My husband, who’s been on the hunt for tomato powder to bake his famous pizza-​flavoured bread, found it here.
The table pepper mix is phenomenal. This is the only place we go to get pepper.
Sugar ain’t excluded either — sugar in every flavour. Fancy that. Lavender sugar. Chocolate sugar. Everything.
And teas. And rubs. And pickling spices.
Okay so my recommendation is, if you want to feel super inspired: hit up Sur la Table and stare at their beautiful cooking gadgets, then stumble over to The Spice and Tea Exchange, and admire the beautiful spices available to you. You’ll be so eager to buy something, to cook something, there’s no way you won’t go home and make delicious food.

This is one of my favorite places to stop in while in portland. They have a massive selection spices including a great selection of flavored sugars and flavored salts (smoked alderwood salt anybody?)
The prices are a little high, but if you’re strategically picking spices that are hard to find elsewhere, then you’ll love what you get from this little place.
Though the salespeople weren’t all smiles… I have a hard time envisioning them as snooty or rude as some of the other reviewers have said. It was just the right amount of service for a small store.