Summit Spice & Tea Company

Summit Spice & Tea Company has been hand-blending its spice and tea recipes in Alaska since 1998. The shop is at 3030 Denali St #2 in midtown Anchorage, and it describes itself as a premium boutique for spices, spice blends, loose-leaf teas and Alaskan foods and gifts, with specialty groceries, fine chocolates and gift items alongside the tea. There is also a tea room where you can sit with a cup and a pastry before deciding what to take home. It opens Monday to Saturday from ten to six and on Sunday from eleven to five.

Almost every tea on the site is sold in bulk by the ounce, with tins of two to seven ounces as the larger format and a discount of fifteen percent at eight ounces and twenty-five at sixteen. The list covers the classic families: an English Breakfast built on Assam, Ceylon and African leaf, a Longjing from China with flat, blade-shaped leaves, a Ti Guan Yin from Anxi, hand-picked Silver Needle buds, a premium-grade matcha and a masala chai spiced with cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and black pepper. Further down are Li Shan and Dan Cong oolongs, a 2005 Golden Melon pu'erh and a whole shelf of yerba mate blends.

The Alaskan side of the catalogue is the part you will not find elsewhere: house blends named Midnight Sun Black, Glacier Mint, Alyeska Spice and Mate Iditamint, plus Alaska Artisanal gift boxes filled with small-batch foods from partners around the state, from honey in Willow to sourdough in Anchorage and chocolate in Girdwood. Orders ship from the shop or can be picked up in store. For a first visit, buy by the ounce: the bulk price is the entry point on nearly every tea, and the tin is the format for the one you come back for.