Suraj Spices & Teas

Suraj Spices & Teas is at 8 City Blvd, in the OneC1ty development just off Charlotte Avenue and 31st Avenue North, in the same building as TOA, Pastaria and Sump Coffee. The shop's own story starts in the 1980s, when the owner's parents opened one of Nashville's first Indian groceries, Suraj Imports, named after her grandmother; nearly forty years later their daughter, Aarika, followed with this shop. It opens Wednesday to Friday from noon to 6pm, Saturday from 1pm to 6pm and Sunday from noon to 5pm, and is closed on Monday and Tuesday.

The tea wall is sorted into black, green and yellow, oolong, pu'er, white, and herbal tisanes with yerba mate and cocoa, roughly 120 teas in all, and everything is weighed out by the ounce: an organic English Breakfast, a first-flush Darjeeling, Assam, gunpowder, genmaicha, jasmine pearls, a Tieguanyin and a Quanzhou milk oolong, a ceremonial matcha from Nishio and an organic pu'er tuocha. Small square tins hold the same teas for gifts, and the counter welcomes your own clean tins and jars to refill by weight. Next to the tea sit the spices the shop is named for, from Turkish Urfa biber to the family's chai masala blend.

Finding the door is part of the visit: the storefront is at the back of the building, past Sump Coffee and along the bocce court, and the shop's FAQ warns that GPS will drop you at the car park. Parking in the lot off 31st, on the street or in the OneC1ty garage is free for two hours and can be validated at the counter. The shop also sells teaware and ceramics, runs workshops such as a matcha class, publishes a recipe box, and ships orders by USPS within three to five business days; online orders can be collected at the Richland Park farmers' market by adding a note at checkout.