Butterfly Herbs opened for business in 1972 on Missoula’s trendy Hip Strip. It was one of several businesses that operated out of what was known as the Butterfly Building, offering medicinal bulk herbs and whole bean coffee.

The Butterfly Building housed a collection of small businesses all run by ambitious 20-something hippies. Located where GILD now sits, the Butterfly Building included a fine-dining restaurant upstairs, a movie theater in the back, an import clothing and jewelry shop, and Butterfly Herbs.

“It was just a tiny cubby on the main floor,” recalls Debby Barbario, who has worked at Butterfly Herbs since the mid-1970s.

The store has since moved downtown and is as popular as ever, and it's now celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Butterfly Herbs resembles a general store straight out of the 1920s. A rolling ladder sits along the back wall with jars of teas and herbs. The lighting is dim and under the cashier’s counter are see-through bins filled with coffee beans from around the world.

Colored labels for all of the unique teas produced at Montana Tea and Spice wait to be placed on a finished package. (Kevin Moriarty/Missoula Current)
Colored labels for all of the unique teas produced at Montana Tea and Spice wait to be placed on a finished package. (Kevin Moriarty/Missoula Current)
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One of the store’s most popular items - a tea dubbed Evening in Missoula - has gained notoriety outside of Montana and is now shipped all over the world. “That’s what put us on the map,” said Barbario.

The tea was created by the original owner of Butterfly Herbs, Bruce Lee, who passed away in 2004. Lee eventually sold Butterfly Herbs in the 80s after a fire in the basement caused significant damage to the store.

However, Bruce and his then wife, Sherri Lee, went on to build a successful business selling bulk teas and spices that began as a small operation out of their garage. Today, Sherri Lee still runs Montana Tea and Spice at 2600 West Broadway with about 10 employees and ships orders all over the United States, including the Evening in Missoula.

A mechanical tea-bagging machine from Liverpool, England fills individual bags of Evening in Missoula tea. The machine has to be adjusted differently depending on the type of tea being bagged. “You don’t want too much tea in a bag because it expands with water,” said Lee. (Kevin Moriarty/Missoula Current)
A mechanical tea-bagging machine from Liverpool, England fills individual bags of Evening in Missoula tea. The machine has to be adjusted differently depending on the type of tea being bagged. “You don’t want too much tea in a bag because it expands with water,” said Lee. (Kevin Moriarty/Missoula Current)
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Sherri Lee said that Bruce was somewhat of a genius when it came to creating tea and spice blends. She said he once put together an entire line of herbal teas in one day.

“He had an incredible nose,” said Lee. “He could smell things that I never could.”

Montana Tea and Spice has steadily grown over the years, primarily by word of mouth. The company does little advertising and has built a reputation with customers who keep coming back.

A letter hangs in Sherri Lee’s office from a customer who moved away from Missoula years ago, but still drinks the tea.

“For people that have lived here that liked it and moved away, it brings back memories,” said Lee. “We get these love letters all the time from people.”

Montana Tea and Spice mix, bag and package a vast array of teas including green, herbal and black tea, and it supplies the tea for Butterfly Herbs. Lee receives shipments from distributors of tea, often three bins weighting 500 pounds.

Lee said the largest tea manufacturer in North America, Celestial Seasonings, was founded around the same time that Butterfly Herbs opened its doors.

“The owner of Celestial Seasonings tried to buy the recipe for Evening in Missoula from us,” said Sherri Lee, “Bruce said no, no, no.”

Kevin Moriarty is a graduate student studying journalism at the University of Montana. 

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