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Our Story
Food is Love…
It sounds simple enough but if you really sit for a moment and think, food, at least for many of us is a profound and deeply personal experience; we remember meals, where we've eaten them and those we have shared them with. These tastes, smells, textures and sights become part of the very fabric of which we are. They are our memories both past and future.
We hope that we can in some small part share a meal with you and those at your table and in turn share with you our heartfelt philosophy that food is love!
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Our Story
salty-savory-sweet The Spice & Tea Shoppe
We love to travel, I love to cook and we both love to eat. The Spice and Tea Shoppe was born from our love of these things. Our passion is to provide our community with a taste of the world one dish and one cup at a time with the finest, highest quality ingredients available from all corners of the globe. Whether you are an experienced gourmet cook creating your newest gastronomical masterpiece, a home cook passing on generations of tradition in a beloved family classic, a new bride without knowledge but armed with the desire to create your own traditions or a dude or a Dad armed with a brew, a barbecue and a full tank of fuel we all share a common desire to bond over a meal.
“If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him... the people who give you their food give you their heart.”— Cesar Chavez
It started with a bottle of wine
Have you ever had one of those perfect moments when you wish you could just press pause? For us it happened in October, 2014. We were sitting in the beautiful Jardine de Tuileries overlooking the gardens with the Louvre in the background, flowers still in bloom and the first blaze of autumn tinting the trees; an amazing picnic spread out before us and of course the now infamous (at least to us) bottle of wine.
There is something about traveling that allows creativity. If only we could bottle those feelings and each day take a little sip of the magic elixir to have that continued feeling of freedom, adventure, wonder and fulfillment. That’s what we wanted and I believe that is something we all want. After finishing our magic bottle of elixir we had one of those moments of what we thought was perfect mental clarity. "We want a more fulfilling life, no longer a slave to ideals that were not our own, no longer answering to the man!" Spirits were high, cheeks were ruddy, and we were going to do ... What?
Home is Truly Where the Heart Is
We returned home at the end of October tired but with resolve to make changes, and although we went through our usual post traumatic vacation adjustment period this time really was different. We had opened our hearts and minds up and committed to free ourselves from fear and create a life with and for each other full of purpose and goals that aligned with who we are. We wanted to share our passions and experiences and we decided we were going to build a life that we didn't need a vacation from. By the first of November we no longer worked for the man. Sometimes things just work out the way they're supposed to and we looked for inspiration.
Our Journey to There and Back Again
We are backpack travelers and I learned long ago that pulling a suitcase over cobble stoned streets filled with 20 different outfits and eight pairs of shoes was a really bad idea. We couldn't have freedom in travel if we brought all our baggage, literally and figuratively from home. Traveling with a backpack while advantageous can present some real challenges especially when it comes to souvenirs and more than 20 years ago I discovered the perfect compact “what did you bring me.”
Spices and Teas....
The first time I brought back spices and teas from abroad I remember exactly what they were. Loose leaf teas from Fortnum & Mason in London and saffron from Spain. I'm not even sure I knew how to use saffron all those years ago but I knew I was going to learn. Trip after trip everywhere we went we returned with spices and teas. Herbes de Provence, Mediterranean oregano, Dalmatian sage, black truffle sea salt, Jamaican allspice, Tunisian spice mix, pepper, vanilla, black, green, herbal and chai teas all lugged halfway round the world to the delight of friends and family and to the confusion of drug sniffing airport dogs. We had unknowingly become importers of global goods.
You Gotta Have Friends
Serendipity- My good friend asked “Do you know where I can get some really good teas?” She shared that there just wasn't any place locally to get a good variety of loose leaf teas and I concurred. Then the proverbial light bulb indeed turned on. I have been bringing these treasures home for years for my friends and family. Why not our neighbors and our community? My beautiful friend unknowingly became our muse.
And all these things have brought us where we are today
While many of the events in our lives seem totally random they are all most certainly intertwined in complex ways that only reveal themselves to us when the time is right and we are ready. We are grateful and humbled to be where we are right now with you. We hope to share our passion, to inspire and be inspired, to travel the globe together tasting and savoring the beautiful and vast flavors which make each culture and dish unique.
You are not customers you are our guests sharing a table where food truly is love.
Welcome.