Summit Spice and Tea Company

Today I went to Summit Spice & Tea Company's new midtown store, which has been open about a month. Summit Spices have had a store for several years in south Anchorage on Huffman, but they just opened this new location at Benson and Denali, for those of us who don't live in south Anchorage and find it a pain to go all the way down to Huffman.

Summit Spices is basically a gourmet food store, but the bulk of their stock is devoted to spices and teas. They have shelves and shelves of spices, from a section containing several different kinds of cinnamon, to star anise and whole cloves and nutmeg, to their own spice blends and rubs for all your cooking needs. They also have things like pepper grinders, spice grinders, and those planes that Food Network chefs use to grate nutmeg and zest citrus. They also have big jars of some spices behind the counter, so you can have them weigh things out for you, or I assume you can create your own blend. The spices can be expensive, but one of the things I like is that they carry most in very small jars which are only a few dollars. They know that you are probably not going to use a lot of sumac or tumeric in your kitchen, so why not sell little jars so you don't have 4 ounces of unused spices five years from now.

Their tea section is also really amazing, and probably the best selection of tea in town. They have all kinds of loose leaf teas. Popular ones are available in little one or two ounce tins, or they have a counter where you can pick from a wall of tea caddies arranged by general types (black teas, chinese green teas, herbal teas, etc), and someone will weigh out what you want. I got the Jasmine Pearl tea- I love jasmine tea, and pearl tea means they've rolled up whole tea leaves, instead of the little shreds you usually get, into tight little balls that unroll when you brew the tea. I just loved the smell of this tea, and I'd never had it before, so I'm excited. They also have a tea room next to the store, if you would like to sit and try some new teas with your friends. I need to come back so I can try out this aspect of the store.

They also have a great selection of teapots and teacups. Most of their teapots are a Japanese brand called  Bee House, and they have a wide variety of shapes, colors, and sizes. My husband bought me a little one in which to brew my new jasmine tea. They also carry Bee House tea cups, as well as many other kinds of tea cups, including lots of nice, fancy English bone china ones with flowers painted on them.


They also have lots of other random gourmet foods, including several Alaskan brands, which I appreciated. They had an Alaskan brand of salsas, and Alaskan birch syrup. They had a section of curry pastes and sauces I would like to try, including thai curry pastes from an Oregon company, and a line of Indian curry pastes and other things like tamarind paste. I would like to try both the Thai and Indian curry pastes, although what I'd really like to do is put together a list of spices I need from this store, and then try grinding my own spices and making my own Indian curry paste. They also carry Tonia's biscotti, which is popular and also carried by places like Cafe del Mundo, and things like Nikki's cookies, which makes real shortbread cookies, in plain, Meyer lemon, and key lime. I bought a box of the Meyer lemon. They carry several fancy kinds of oils and vinegars, including Chardonnay vinegar and raspberry champagne vinegar, fancy European olive oils, truffle oil, avocado oil, and things like that. Other foods they carry include popcorn and a brand of curds called "Elizabethan Kitchen" that makes apple curd and key lime curd.

They also have a good sized chocolate section which will take me another visit to explore thoroughly and report on, but I will say that they have a good variety of single-source and fair trade bars. I hope you're not too disappointed that I didn't buy a bunch of chocolate to try, but frankly the chocolate section was a victim of just how much great stuff they carry. The chocolate section is right by the front door, so I saw it and thought I'd come back after I did a once-over of the store, but I got so absorbed in the spices and teas that I never did. It will just have to be an ongoing project, as chocolate always is.


The last thing I need to mention is that they seem to host a lot of tutorial/tasting classes. The flyer on the counter had several scheduled just for July and August. Most are small and cost between $10 and $20, and include an olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting, beginner and advanced tea tastings, chocolate tastings, and a class on how to blend your own herbal tea. I am totally going to take a couple of these so I can learn more about all these things, and so I can taste things like super fancy olive oil and vinegar that I probably won't ever actually buy.

As you can see, this is not your cheap, everyday ingredient kind of store. But, if you are really into tea, this is your kind of store. And when you decide to try your hand at making Ethiopian stews, they have a spice blend ready-made for you. And when you decide to finally try and make some delicious Middle Eastern dish or to make your own vindaloo paste, you can get everything you need here. There are a lot of things to try out, so I am sure that I for one will become a regular customer.