Asian markets (Hmart, Lotte, etc.) will have loose tea leaves. But obviously, it will just be your "generic" Asian types (Jasmine, Green, etc.) as opposed to different flavor varieties you may find in tea shops.

I used American Kitchen Concepts and had a great experience. Dan is a good guy and had a great crew. That was the key IMO. I saw Dan mostly during the design/consulting phase. But it was his crew that I had to deal with for 3 weeks while we were getting our entire kitchen redone.

That said - I do recall Dan using a company called Counter Intelligence (Silver Spring?) for our counters. So if that is all you need, it may be worth a shot going straight to them. They probably can also do your backsplash. We just used the same marble material for our backsplash behind the cooktop.

I think that was our vet back in the day (VCA?). They were really good.

Different sections/areas for dogs and cats (not sure if that is all vets as that was really my only experience).

I don’t think 40 itself is that bad unless there are accidents on 70. But any alternate routes can have that. Certainly the area by St John’s and 70 sucks during rush hour and I’ve personally seen it as a parking lot by Turf Valley a few times when 70 was actually shut down. But the worst area is just the choke points where 40, 70, and 29 all converge. Which IMO isn’t any different than various areas on 29, 32, 175 and 108.

And try going down 108 in the Long Reach area during rush hour or Snowden around Kendall Ridge/Columbia Gateway area. Those are areas I don’t even go near during rush hour.

I think outside of the Mall vs. old town, most of the suburbs are very similar. You can be dropped in a neighborhood and you wouldn't necessarily know if you are in Columbia or EC (unless you happen to see the Columbia street names).

I think it really depends on what you are looking for. I actually have lived in both Columbia and EC. Albeit I was only in Columbia for 2 years, but almost 20 years in EC.

Honestly, they might as well be the same town. It's not like there is a border and things just look/feel different once you cross it. If I were to compare them, I guess you can say Columbia is more "urban". You have sort of a "population center" with the mall - high rises, business buildings, etc. EC is more the 'burbs.

Just my opinion of course.