Tea shops · Columbus, United States
A spice stall in the North Market that sells herbs and a smoked Fujian black loose by weight, from a quarter of an ounce up.
Illustrative image
The house
North Market Spices is a stall inside the historic North Market at 59 Spruce Street, downtown. Ben Walters opened it in August 2010, after spending years tuning the blend the stall now sells as the Columbus Rub, when a space in the market was about to come free. It has stayed a spice business ever since: more than four hundred spices and herbs, sold loose and shipped direct.
Tea is a small corner of that, about twenty items shelved together with the coffee and the cocoa, and the corner is better than its size suggests. There is a Lapsang Souchong from Fujian, described on its own page as fired over pine or cypress wood, and beside it the herbs a tea drinker actually reaches for: chamomile flowers, hibiscus, lemongrass, crushed spearmint and tulsi, all sold by the same weights as the paprika.
The sizes are the point. Everything runs from a quarter ounce to a pound, with separate bulk and five-pack options, so a first visit can leave with six different herbs for the price of one tin elsewhere. The house Chai Starter belongs to the same logic: star anise, cinnamon, allspice, clove, black pepper and cardamom, no salt, steeped and then added to tea or milk, so you build the drink rather than buy it finished.
Columbus · United States
59 Spruce Street, Columbus, OH 43215
Published hours: Sun–Mon 10:00–17:00 · Tue–Fri 10:00–18:00 · Sat 9:00–19:00
Directions to this location →Check with the house before visiting. Published hours may include appointments, seasonal schedules or temporary closures; live status, where available, applies only to the named location and does not account for exceptional closures.
The FindMeTea edit
01 · Black tea
The only true tea on the shelf and a properly smoky one, fired over pine or cypress, which is a strange and welcome thing to find at a spice stall.
from US$ 11· 2 oz
Explore this tea →02 · Herbal infusion
Whole flowers rather than the dust in supermarket bags, and the quarter-ounce size means you can find that out for the price of a coffee.
from US$ 4.20· 0.25 oz
Explore this tea →03 · Herbal infusion
Deep red and sharply tart, the one infusion on this shelf that is as good cold as hot, and an ounce of it fills a lot of jugs.
from US$ 5.20· 1 oz
Explore this tea →The one worth the trip
A chai starter without salt and without sugar is rarer than it sounds: most supermarket mixes are sweetened before you get near them. This one is six spices and nothing else, steeped and then added to your own black tea and milk, which means the strength of the result is a decision you make rather than one already made for you.
from US$ 9· 1.5 oz
Prices
Prices are indicative. Each price keeps its currency and pack size; this selection does not necessarily cover the house's complete range.
7 prices
| Tea | Type | Price / pack |
|---|---|---|
| Lemongrass | Herbal infusion | from US$ 3.500.5 oz |
| Spearmint, Crushed Leaves | Herbal infusion | from US$ 3.851 oz |
| Chamomile Flowers | Herbal infusion | from US$ 4.200.25 oz |
| Tulsi / Holy Basil | Herbal infusion | from US$ 4.990.5 oz |
| Hibiscus Flowers | Herbal infusion | from US$ 5.201 oz |
| Chai Powder | Chai | from US$ 91.5 oz |
| Lapsang Souchong | Black tea | from US$ 112 oz |
Indicative prices, with each product’s pack size. Prices may change; check with the shop. Price verification dates: 2026-09-15.
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Images are cropped to fit the layout. The generic cover, when used, is illustrative and does not show this shop.
