Vermont Liberty Tea Company Edit

A fantastic little shop. This was the first real tea shop I visited, and where I truly became hooked on the stuff. There is an excellent and diverse selection, covering all the bases, especially house blended herbals (though the Pu’ehr selection is a bit lacking).

What really makes this hop special is the excellent gentleman behind the counter. When I entered his shop he offered my family a diverse selection of samples, and proceeded to give a 45 minute lesson on tea and its varieties, topped off with a visit to the herb garden aside of the shop. Despite his active participation in our experience he was not pushy whatsoever. Highly recommend for a budding tea enthusiast to start.

Introduced to this place by my mother-in-law. Unfortunately, Hurricane Irene has forced it to a temporary location at the time of this writing. However, the owner is VERY knowledgeable about tea and worth asking for a story or two. I love the way he organizes his teas, too, by type and such. He also uses distinctive blue tins for two sizes of his offerings and also has lots of nifty teawares for sale. He taught me how to grow ginger of all things… Oh yeah, and often when you pop in, he’s got one or more teas brewed up, ready for his patrons to sample. I discovered Cream Earl Grey and Osmanthus Oolong there and went back for more.

This is my favorite place to buy tea. You can, of course, order online—but it’s well worth taking a stop into the brick and mortar store. The owner, John, is full of enthusiasm for his product, and it shows in the quality of everything he sells. When you buy a tea from VT Liberty, you can be sure you are getting exactly what you pay for—with lower grade (but still excellent) teas reflecting their price and more expensive teas being only top quality.

Liberty also has an amazing selection of unusual teas and unusual tea blends, many of which I had never heard of or seen before. French Blend, Buckingham Palace and China Osmanthus were among some of the amazing tea blends I was able to try for the first time upon visiting this store. He also has an excellent selection of tisanes.

Finally, one thing that can be counted on at Liberty is great conversation. The owner always has three teas to taste and loves to talk shop, and often talks about his experiences buying tea. As well as finding a place to buy excellent quality loose leaf, I found a store which broadened my understanding of tea and the tea trade.