The Spice & Tea Exchange® of Freeport Celebrates Grand Reopening May 1-3
FREEPORT, Maine (April 10, 2026)—The Spice & Tea Exchange® of Freeport is celebrating its grand reopening with new leadership. Owners Joel and Sam Elliot and Denham Ward are enthusiastically joining The Spice & Tea Exchange® family, with Maine’s first franchise location. They will celebrate the store’s Grand Reopening from Friday, May 1, through Sunday, May 3, at 6 Mill St., in Freeport, Maine.
“It turns out that I’m not great at retirement,” laughs Joel Elliot, co-owner of The Spice & Tea Exchange® of Freeport. “I get great pleasure out of working, so stepping into The Spice & Tea Exchange® was a great fit. I am continually impressed by the quality and freshness of our products. I love interacting with our customers and telling them things like when you buy our smoked sea salt, it’s actually being slowly smoked over wood, not quickly tossed with smoke flavoring. The community has been so welcoming, and I’m excited to continue branching out and bringing even more international flavors to our historic town.”
Previously, Elliot helped to manage nonprofit organizations, and prior to that, worked in the travel industry. For those years, his home was Rochester, New York. He and his wife have visited Maine and the Freeport area for more than 40 years, and their son and daughter-in-law live locally. Since joining The Spice & Tea Exchange® of Freeport in early January, Elliot has been thrilled by the friendliness and welcoming nature of the Freeport business community. He is starting to work with local restaurants and food purveyors to supply wholesale products and plans to collaborate with local chefs to create custom blends. Elliot is also bringing fun, community events to the store. He’s already booked his first Custom Blends House Concert, a monthly concert series that features local bands. The first concert, scheduled for April 23, will feature the 2nd Chance Uke Band.
Shopping at The Spice & Tea Exchange® of Freeport is a sensorial delight. Customers are drawn by the stores’ exotic smells and jars of product designed to be opened. The staff hand-blends a wide range of traditional and signature blends in-store daily. Customers can also explore shelves of infused sugars, honey, olive oils, maple syrup, and over 80 of the freshest teas made with high-quality leaves and aromatics. The Grand Reopening is Friday, May 1, through Sunday, May 3, during regular store hours, and is open to the public. The store will offer a free tote bag with $75 purchase, all weekend long, while supplies last, as well as: Friday, May 1: 10% off teas; Saturday, May 2: 10% off all salts, peppers and spices; Sunday, May 3: 10% off everything in the store.
