By Erica Sacra for The Shelby Report  

The Tea Spot is now available in The Fresh Market with its line of organic and functional specialty teas for grocery and retail. The Tea Spot began the partnership with The Fresh Market earlier this year and is now in all 161 of the company’s grocery stores in 22 states across the United States. In addition, The Tea Spot expanded its operations by working with three UNFI distribution centers on the East Coast to meet demand.

The Fresh Market, headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, is a fresh-focused specialty grocery chain, and The Tea Spot is a producer of handcrafted whole leaf teas and Steepware.

“The Tea Spot is thrilled to be available at The Fresh Market, while working with UNFI on a greater scale for distribution,” says Maria Uspenski, CEO of The Tea Spot and author of Cancer Hates Tea. “Through these new partnerships, a larger audience—especially on the east coast—will discover some of our top-selling tea blends while benefiting from healthier living through the everyday enjoyment of whole leaf tea.”

The partnership with The Fresh Market marks the first time the company’s teas have been distributed in a major grocery or retail store based on the east coast. As a result, The Tea Spot now works with three more UNFI distribution centers, including Greenwood, Indiana; York, Pennsylvania; and Richburg, South Carolina. The Tea Spot already distributed its teas through UNFI’s Aurora, Colorado, facility. UNFI distributes more than 110,000 products to more than 43,000 customer locations including natural product superstores, independent retailers and conventional supermarket chains, among others.

The new offerings featured at The Fresh Market include The Tea Spot’s top-five organic and functional teas in pyramid tea bags (SRP $6.99), including: 

• Morning Mojo, Organic – pu’erh, vanilla, black tea breakfast blend 
• Meditative Mind, Organic – white tea, jasmine pearls, rose petals 
• Turmeric Tonic, Organic – triple root ginger, turmeric chai 
• Lights Out, Organic – hibiscus herbal sleepy tea with valerian root 
• Keep Fit, Organic – matcha green tea, yerba mate, lemon 

In addition to supplying teas to grocery stores such as The Fresh Market, The Tea Spot provides wholesale teas to gourmet, specialty and independent retailers, tea and coffeehouses, restaurants, natural food stores, hotels, spas, the outdoor and fitness industry and more. The company also offers corporate gifting programs and co-branding options.