The Spice & Tea Exchange of Fells Point

The Fells Point store of The Spice & Tea Exchange is at 1635 Thames Street, on the cobbled waterfront of the old port, and is owned and operated by Laura Mattingly and Matthew Morris. It follows the chain's format: fine spices, more than 85 handcrafted seasonings hand-mixed in store every day, loose-leaf teas, salts, sugars and gifts, with a Tea Bar inside. The store takes phone orders for curbside pickup and ships online orders free over $75, and it keeps long hours for a tea counter, until 7pm on weekdays and 8pm on Sunday.

The tea catalogue is the brand's own, sold online and stocked in the store, and it covers black, green, oolong, white, pu-erh, chai, matcha, yerba mate and herbal teas. Each loose tea comes in the same run of formats: a two-ounce small bag, a four-ounce bag, square and storage tins. At two ounces, Earl Grey, an organic International Breakfast and Victorian Chai are $17.99, organic Darjeeling, Sencha Superior and Iron Goddess of Mercy $19.99 and Jasmine Pearls $23.99; the ceremonial matcha is a 20 g tin at $21.99.

Two practical notes. Fells Point is the part of Baltimore visitors walk anyway, so this is the tea counter most likely to be passed by accident, and the tea bar makes the accident useful: a cup from the wall before deciding on a bag. And because the catalogue is the chain's, anything tasted here can be reordered online later at the same price, which is not true of the tea room across town. For a first bag, the Iron Goddess of Mercy is the one the wall does best.