Step into The Spice & Tea Exchange® of Freeport on the hill below Main Street and you’ll first be met by the smell. Aromas drift from hundreds of glass jars filled with over 100 types of blended spices, 80+ full leaf teas, and countless salts, sugars, and honeys.
If you’re lucky, you’ll also meet Joel Elliot, the new owner of this Freeport franchise. You’ll know him by his sheer friendliness; he’ll get you talking, and before you know it, he’ll be whipping out a jar and recommending a particular type of tea for you to taste.
Joel is new to Freeport. He relocated from Rochester, New York to Maine with his wife in late 2025. They moved to be close to his son, daughter-in-law, and young grandson. Not long after arriving, Joel discovered an opportunity to take over The Spice & Tea Exchange of Freeport from its previous owners.
“I like to say I bought myself a job,” he says with a laugh.
The Spice & Tea Exchange has its roots in St. Augustine, Florida, where its founders transformed a small spice shop into a national franchise. Today, there are nearly 100 locations across the country, each independently owned and operated.
“They’ve built a magnificent system,” he says. “My job is to bring it to life here—to execute it well and further build a great team.”
Joel is building connections across the Freeport business community and wider food industry in Maine. He’s also booking bands for his new monthly concert series in the shop. He’s quick to credit CORE for supporting the swift transition of the store. “They’ve been great landlords—responsive, thoughtful, easy to work with,” he says. “When you’re starting something new, that kind of partnership really matters.”
He also points out that the product itself is impressive: “We’re not pulling products off a factory line. We’re zesting citrus, dehydrating ingredients, and blending spices by hand. It’s as close as we can get to what nature produces.”
CORE acquired 6 Mill Street several years ago; the building was vacant at the time. Since then, in addition to the Spice and Tea Exchange, the acclaimed Maine brand Sea Love has opened a gorgeous space on the upper floor. CORE has played a major role in bringing businesses back into Freeport’s downtown in the years since the Covid pandemic, and the town is currently seeing significant development interest as a result.
From his side, Joel has decades of leadership experience to draw on in his new venture; he spent 20 years in the travel industry and has worked for various nonprofit organizations in healthcare, food systems, and workforce development.
But in many ways, this new chapter is a return to something far more personal.
Back in the early 1980s, Joel launched a small coffee and tea concept in his friend’s bookstore in San Francisco. It was called Tradewind Coffee and Tea.
“It was just a little nook,” he says smiling. “But it planted the seed.”
More than 40 years later, that seed has sprouted, crossed the country, and taken root in Freeport, Maine.
The Spice & Tea Exchange of Freeport celebrates its grand re-opening on May 1-3. You can find it at 6 Mill Street, Freeport