Local Holiday Shopping: The Spice & Tea Exchange [Q&A]

For this new installment of our holiday shopping series, we spoke on Tuesday afternoon to Pam Robinson, who owns The Spice & Tea Exchange at 118 Main St. with husband John Robinson.

What follows is a transcription of our interview.

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Pam Robinson: “One of our favorite products this year is actually our Advent calendar. It doesn’t matter, the fact that it’s the middle of December already. But this is a brand new feature this year. It’s our ‘12 days of flavor,’ our top-12 teas. And then we also have our ‘top custom blends,’ which are our all-star blends.” Priced at $39.99. Photo credit: Michael Dinan

New Canaanite:  How are things going so far this shopping season?

Pam Robinson: We’re very happy with this holiday season. Lots of new faces are coming into town. Lots of new people that have not heard of us before, spending the holidays in New Canaan. So it’s been a great time so far.

And what kind of things are they looking for? 

Generally, a lot of them are looking for tea sets because they have either family members or friends that are either into tea or getting into tea. It’s a whole new process. There’s a lot of people, and some of them come in with no knowledge. So it’s great for us to help them find that perfect gift. 

Pam Robinson: “This is our ‘Gift of Grilling,’ always a really good gift. This is our ‘9 Tin Gift Box.’ It includes some of our top grilling custom blends along with your everyday seasoning, such as parsley and our light chili pepper onions, and also some of our other really favorite products in the store. So if you have a griller in your family, that is a great gift.” Priced at $99.99. Photo credit: Michael Dinan

I guess some people would see your store name and think that you just have spices and teas here, but I know you have so much more than that. How do you describe the store to people? 

We describe the store to people as ‘a culinary world.’ You can come in, get everything in addition to your spices and teas. We also have honeys, we have maple syrup right out of Vermont. It’s also  a great experience for people to come in while we’re blending either our teas or our spices. One of the really popular things this year is our dill pickle sea salt. That’s been a big hit here in New Canaan.

Pam Robinson: “This is our grinder table. One of our favorite products, besides the dill pickle, is our ‘Florida Sunshine,’ which we make here in the store. The great thing about this one is it brings you back to feeling like you’re in the tropics. It’s like citrus sea salt. Great on chicken, great on fish. Great on vegetables. It just brings that little brightness to your dishes.” Priced at $15. Photo credit: Michael Dinan

We’re really excited to be able to introduce new products throughout the year, and this year we’re focusing a lot more on ideas that people are bringing to us. What do people really want? One of the products we have this year is our white chocolate peppermint green tea. That’s been very popular. It’s really good. 

You’re right at the bottom of Elm Street here and we’ve seen changes recently to parking on Elm. What effect are you seeing here, if anything?

We will get people coming in now saying, ‘I have five minutes, time’s running out on the clock.’ Or ‘I do want to come in but I have to run through the store really quickly’ or ‘I’m going to have to come back.’ That’s what we’re seeing. It doesn’t mean they’re not shopping. It just means that they may not do it all in one shot.