Our Visit to Hemp & Tea Company In South Charlotte

A Charlotte Company Founded On Serving Legal Hemp & Tea Products

Hemp & Tea Company was founded in 2019 and opened its first Charlotte-area location only months before the COVID-19 pandemic. The company has since grown to eight locations across Charlotte and nearby communities, with stores in Charlotte, Huntersville, Belmont, Mooresville, and Concord.

The tea side of the business isn’t an afterthought. Hemp & Tea Company sells traditional loose-leaf teas and botanicals alongside hemp-infused tea products, giving the brand a broader wellness identity than retailers focused almost entirely on flower, vapes, or edibles.

That category also has a much larger market behind it than many shoppers may realize. World Tea News, citing Allied Market Research, reported that the global hemp tea market was valued at $56.2 million in 2021 and is projected to reach $392.8 million by 2031, with North America holding the largest regional share in 2021.

The White Hall Store Feels More Like a Lounge

The White Hall store is arranged to encourage customers to slow down rather than rush through a transaction. There’s open floor space, lounge seating, display walls, and a tea-focused atmosphere that makes it easier to browse or ask questions before choosing a product.

Hemp & Tea Company’s own location information emphasizes product education, knowledgeable staff, lab-tested products, and a calm shopping environment. That approach is visible in the Steele Creek store, where the product displays are separated by category and the seating area gives the shop a more relaxed feel.

The Menu Goes Far Beyond Flower

The current White Hall menu lists 438 available products at regular prices, with sold-out products omitted. The largest categories are Tea & Botanicals with 155 items and Cannabis, Hemp & CBD Teas with 97 items, but the store also carries dozens of flower strains, pre-rolls, gummies, edibles, concentrates, vapes, tinctures, topicals, and infused drinks.

That range gives the store multiple entry points for shoppers. Someone looking for traditional tea can browse alongside customers shopping for THCA flower, CBD, Delta-8, Delta-9, gummies, concentrates, or wellness products without the store feeling built around only one product type.

Wellness Products Add Another Side to the Store

Hemp & Tea Company also carries tinctures, oils, creams, bath products, botanicals, and other wellness-focused items. That makes the White Hall location useful even for customers who aren’t shopping for flower or edibles and helps explain why the store feels broader than a conventional cannabinoid retailer.

The company’s product mix also reinforces the tea-house side of the business. Traditional teas and botanicals sit beside cannabinoid products, while the seating area gives customers a place to spend more time in the store instead of treating every visit as a quick retail stop.

Federal Hemp Rules Have Changed the Timeline, Not the Uncertainty

The company’s future drew local attention earlier this year. In April, Queen City Nerve reported that Hemp & Tea Company senior manager Olivia Merlock estimated roughly 85% of the company’s products could be affected by federal hemp restrictions scheduled to take effect in November 2026. She also estimated that six of the company’s eight locations could be at risk if the rules took effect as written.

The immediate timeline has changed since that report. A short-term federal funding law approved in September postponed most of the incoming hemp restrictions from November 12 to December 11, 2026. The delay gives businesses another month under the existing framework, but it doesn’t repeal the underlying changes.

Congress is also considering alternatives. The bipartisan Lawful Hemp Protection Act, H.R. 9830, was introduced on July 22 and would establish a federal framework covering testing, labeling, manufacturing standards, 21-and-older retail sales, marketing restrictions, and cannabinoid-content limits. As of September 23, the bill’s latest listed action remains its referral to several House committees.

Compared with the April report, Hemp & Tea Company’s immediate outlook has improved slightly. All eight locations remain open, and the federal effective date has moved back by about a month. The underlying uncertainty hasn’t disappeared, however, because the current restrictions are still scheduled to take effect in December unless federal law changes again.