Newark Natural Foods Co-op
www.newarknaturalfoods.com
Grocery Store
230 E Main St
Newark, DE 19711
(302) 368-5894
Cooperative grocery store, open to the general public. Sells Frontier Co-op bulk herbs and loose-leaf tea, self-serve in the corner straight to the back as you walk in. Also has some tea bags in a separate aisle.
Reviews
★★★★★Alex Zorach (1453 tea reviews) on May. 11th, 2017
This is one of the better places to buy tea and bulk herbs in town, and they have numerous herbs that are great for use in herbal teas and blends (spearmint, tulsi, and lemon balm come to mind). The self-serve station is fantastic, it has scoops and scales, labels, and bags, all you need to weigh out and package your own tea. The fact that you're doing the work yourself helps keep the prices down, and the prices are great, pretty close to rock-bottom.
My favorite thing though about the pricing is that it's a flat price by weight, so you can get a bunch of small samples for much cheaper than you could get them from a typical tea company (where you're paying mainly for the packaging costs).
If I were just rating their herbs and not true teas, I'd give them five stars, because the herb selection is huge and the quality is top-notch. The quality of the teas is more inconsistent. Some of the teas here are really good, but on average, the quality and freshness of the loose-leaf tea here is a bit lacking. I'm not sure if this is an issue with their supplier, or just that there is not enough turnover on some of the teas to keep them fresh. I've had more misses than hits; if you want to read my reviews, check out my reviews of teas from Frontier, on their brand page. Most of their teas are kinda mediocre, a few outright bad, but there are some top-notch ones in there too. I liked the Ceylon Black Tea (Orange Pekoe) High Grown and the English Breakfast tea best.
I am less a fan of the tea bag section of this store. There are some unusual brands, stuff you won't find as much in a typical supermarket (think a little closer to Whole Foods' selection), but overall I don't see why I'd want to buy that stuff when I can buy the bulk herbs and tea.
As to the rest of the store, it's good. I've seen this store grow and evolve over the years, and I was pleased to find that when it expanded into this new, spiffier storefront, which is brighter, cleaner, and more modern looking, their prices actually dropped! I'm not sure how they managed to do it, but kudos to them! Increased volume? Better management? I don't know, but I shop here more than I did before, and I'm not even a member...which reminds me, you don't need to be a member to shop here. The member discount isn't even that big, so don't let the fact that you're not a member discourage you in any way!
And do check out the bulk herb section; in my opinion it is the best aspect of the store.
