Voila! The Power of Tea

A Tea Fanatic Finds True Love

     Biased as this sounds, I consider myself a very trustworthy person.  You can trust me with your house key, your wallet, your birth certificate and even your kids. . . . but not tea.  You could hand me your entire life savings in cash and fully expect to have every penny returned to you upon demand, but leave a full teapot anywhere near my grasp and I will very likely consume far more than my fair share and make liberal use of your milk, honey and sugar.  On the exceedingly rare occasion that I do turn down tea, my friends have immediate concerns for my health.  So when I was wandering around Frederick a few days ago scouting out places to review and just happened to stumble upon the new Voila tea shop, it was love at first sight.

  

     The scent of hundreds of dried tea-leaf varieties and steeping samples immediately captured my olfactory sense upon opening the door.  I was torn between turning left or right because both walls were covered in tin cans full of loose tea leaves.  I felt overwhelmed as I realized that I could not possibly take a sniff of all of them in a reasonable amount of time even if I hurried with each one.  At the same time, taking in all of the nice furniture and tea accessories was going to take more than a quick visit, so I decided to come back another day to talk with the genius behind this little piece of Heaven in Frederick.

     As crazy as it sounds, the shop owner, Mary Jean Clark, is a bigger tea enthusiast than even I could dream of being.  She stocks 230 different types of loose-leaf tea, and that was after she spent months sampling from about 1,700 different types from suppliers all over the world to find just the perfect blends.  She actually wanted to stock over 300 teas, but found that her store just wouldn't make the room for it.

     So how does someone become crazier about tea than I am?  Well, it all started in France.  Mary was unhappy with her job, and while on a trip to Paris she discovered many cafes and tea shops that inspired her.  She felt that Frederick was able to sustain a shop that has tea as a main focus, and she specifically modeled her store on a French shop called "La Route au Thé" or "The Route to Tea."

     When I asked Mary what makes her tea different from grocery store tea, she said the best way of explaining it was to see for myself.  She took a plain teabag out of a store-bought box labeled "Super Fruit," which is a blend of green tea, red goji and raspberry.  She cut the bag open and poured it onto a dish where it looked like green powder or dust.  Then she showed me the tea from her store that she calls super fruit and it looked like a pile of discernible dried herbs and fruit.  She could point to the different constituent parts by name and distinguish them from the full green tea leaves. 

     As she described her tea, she also read my mind.  I was worried that her kind of tea would have to just be for special occasions, for surely it would come with a higher price tag.  But before I even asked she said that 2 ounces of her tea only costs $8.  I looked around a bit online and found that the grocery store brand can cost more than $10. 

     She had a lot of trouble saying what her favorite teas are. However, she eventually came up with a few frontrunners that are anything but typical grocery-store flavors, but why don't I let her tell you about it herself?

 

      As with most of the stores in downtown Frederick, another big difference between Voila and the grocery store is the level of service.  Mary works really hard to discover exactly which tea is best for which customer by starting with broad categories like black or green and slowly narrowing down the list.  She can describe subtle influences on the flavor that I would have never considered, such as the mode of transportation used to bring it out of the fields.  She reminds me more of a maker of fine wines than a tea seller.  She refused to talk with me during regular business hours for fear that her attention might be taken away from her customers.

     Mary said that in choosing the tea accessories for the store she was less interested in presentation than practicality because there are already many antique stores in Frederick that provide elegant tea sets and she didn't want to compete with them.  She also wanted to make her teas as easily accessible to the average person as possible.  Every tea has an ideal water temperature and steeping time, so she has several pots, infusers and other vessels that allow you to carefully and conveniently monitor these particulars.  She showed me a heavy-duty portable tea thermos with a built-in infuser that can be removed from the tea at the right moment without having to open the lid.  I was super excited about this because I had always thought the only option for drinking tea on the go was a tea bag, but now I have choices!

     For those who like to doctor up their tea with sweeteners, Mary can't even seem to do that in the typical way.  Her honey comes from a local producer who also imports several special flavors that I have never before now seen outside of the Maryland Renaissance Festival, including one that tastes vaguely like marshmallow.  But all of the bottles that she sells have no added flavor, meaning that the flavor comes entirely from whatever pollen the bees used to make it. 

     Even her sugar has a unique flare.  Imported from France and sold in individual burlap sacks sealed with wax, the sugar granules are left in their raw form and infused with various flavors such as citrus, cocoa, and ginger.  

     Although Mary is very good at explaining the particulars of how to make each cup of tea perfectly, if you still aren't up to trying it on your own, you can actually order hot and iced tea by the cup and she will brew it for you right in the store.  She was gracious enough to make me a nice tall cup of a black tea she called "Anti-Oxidant Yum" on ice.  Definitely a strong black tea, the pomegranate, blue berry and cranberry blended into the mix made it much more interesting than my typical afternoon teas.

     The store is on the small side, but Mary has still made room for some really nice chairs for taking a rest while you shop.  She said that she figured most people coming into her store would be with other people who may or may not share an enthusiasm for tea (Gasp!) and that they might "need a place to park."  She figured that since she would be taking up the space with seating, she might as well go ahead and provide a nice line of furniture for sale, so she found a provider based in North Carolina called Old Hickory Tannery.  Made of sturdy wood and covered with many different leather options, Mary says that she is able to offer this furniture at a great discount compared to most of its other locations.

     I said my regretful goodbyes to Voila in the only way that was really appropriate.  I bought two types of tea that I have always had a very difficult time finding.  Normally I have to drive all the way to Shepherdstown for one of them, which although a fun trip, is not always a possible one for someone who lives near Frederick on a low gasoline budget.  But now that I've found this place, you and I will never have to worry about running out of our favorite teas again.

Voila
10 N. Market St.
Frederick, MD 21701
(301) 663-0704
www.voila-in-frederick.com (coming soon)
voila@voila-in-frederick.com

Beans in the Belfry

     All independent cafés have a style all their own and I am a great fan and frequenter of many in the area, but Beans in the Belfry in downtown Brunswick, MD is altogether a unique creature upon the earth, not to mention Brunswick.  Set in a former church, the interior of the café is defined by a large open area filled with eclectic vintage furniture.  Instead of regular tables and chairs right up front, there are these three little areas set up like a living room or parlor, with couches and arm chairs centered around little coffee tables.  None of the couches and chairs match at all, but they all carry an older aesthetic value and just feel like they go well with each other.  Think of an elegant Victorian sitting room thrown in with rustic chic decor.

 
     Behind the little parlor areas are what pass for "regular" tables and chairs in this place, but even they are persistent misfits.  One of the tables is painted with a chess board on top, another table with fading green paint looks to have been pulled out of a nineteenth-century farmhouse kitchen, while another looks like it might have been a formal dining-room table.  Two old wooden pews from when this place was a working church serve as benches for two of the longer tables.

     The walls are dominated by pretty stained-glass windows that change color as the sun moves from one side of the building to the other throughout the day.  Between the windows are prints and other photos that are as eclectic as the furniture, and just as appropriate and interesting.  I see images of old-time Europe and Brunswick alike.

     I like coming in here for my lunch break on the days when I substitute teach at the local middle school and high school because if I've forgotten to bring a book, I can borrow one off the shelf here.  And if I've forgotten to bring a lunch, it's the best place in town to grab a hot delicious sandwich.
     The drinks, of course, are amazing,  Unfortunately for my poor readers, I have never gotten into coffee, so you'll have to stop by and figure that one out for yourselves, but if it's anything like their chai or hot cocoa, you won't be disappointed.  I love that they serve the chai in these enormous mugs and steam the milk to a point where it is all frothy on top.  Whenever I order chai from other places I specify that I want a touch of vanilla added, but here it comes as part of their normal mix.
     The shop is also heavy on the arts and several groups meet there to practice and perform.  As I'm writing this article this very moment, I'm also listening to an Appalachian folk music band that just started playing live over in the children's play area.  While we were sitting here, we were visited by my friend, Ty Unglebower, who told us about a time he and some friends preformed a reading of a play back in the same area where the bands play.
     The Belfry (as I like to affectionately call it) is amazing enough all by itself to serve as an excuse for driving to Brunswick, but if you find yourself there on a nice day, you might also want to take a relaxing walk along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park, which runs almost right behind the coffee shop.  Personally, I think it's especially scenic in the Spring and Fall.  If you'd like to pick up a little about the history, stop in the Brunswick Railroad Museum/C&O Visitor Center just down the street from the Belfry.

122 W Potomac st
Brunswick, MD 21716-1113
(301) 834-7178
www.beansinthebelfry.com

Earthly Elements: Your one-stop rock shop

Shop and Owner

     Fredericktonians are fortunate to live within easy driving distance of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. because of the great shopping and cultural opportunities that big cities provide, but what if I were to tell you that I discovered a local hot spot that gives residents of those big metro regions a reason to visit Frederick?  With much ado and verbal grandioseness (Hey, Shakespeare made up words, too) I give you Earthly Elements, the only dedicated rock shop in the state of Maryland!

     I got really excited the moment I first laid eyes on it a few years ago because of my childhood fascination with polished rocks.  I used to go with my dad on his business trips out west to places like Arizona and Colorado where gift shops centered around pretty rocks, especially the stores in the Rocky Mountains.  I remember filling little bags with the shiny rocks and pretending they were pirate treasure, especially the pyrite or "fool's gold."  Sadly there were so few places to learn about rocks and geology in the Frederick area that I eventually lost interest.  But when I walked into Earthly Elements at the age of 23 and saw a giant treasure chest full of polished rocks, I was suddenly a little boy again and my interests returned.
     Richard Bailey, the shop's owner, also first developed an interest in rocks as a child.  But unlike me, he turned his childhood hobby into a passion and career.  Not only does he run the only rock and mineral store in Maryland, he is also one of the few people in the whole country to do so with a degree in geology, so he is an expert at obtaining the best specimens from all over the world.
 

 

(Hear Richard tell about his childhood interest in rocks) 

Merchandise

     Besides the chest full of an assortment of polished rocks, many items immediately caught my eye as I strolled through the store.  He has a collection of flat, smooth message stone that carry words of encouragement and feel soothing to the touch.  I was also fond of the many little stones that have been carved into interesting shapes, such as animals and Easter eggs.  I think the eggs are especially cool because unlike real decorated eggs, they don't rot.  

     I ended up buying about a pound worth of "Healy Feelies," a trademarked brand of really, really tiny worry stones unique to Earthly Elements.  Just place these smooth little pebbles in a little bowl, let them run through your fingers like sand, and feel your stress melt away.    

 

(Hear Richard talk about Healy Feelies)

      But the shop carries much more than small rocks and trinkets.  He has some major pieces that would be the envy of university geology departments and museums.

 

 

(Hear Richard talk about his favorite pieces)

Customers

     Since opening in 2007, his business has been on a steady upward climb, which he attributes to the uniqueness of his trade and a natural human desire for the exotic. 

     "I've been growing since I opened the doors even though the economy's been tanking," he said.

     Although Richard hopes his store appeals a little bit to everyone, he says that it is especially ideal for four types of customers.  

     The shop is a great place for kids not only because of their natural curiosity and gravitation toward shiny objects, but because of the presentation.  For instance, they can pick out handfuls of their favorite rocks and then put them in colorful wooden boxes of interesting shapes hand-crafted in Poland.  Several are shaped like little pirate chests complete with a Jolly Roger and a working lock. Others are painted with unicorns, Celtic knot patterns, dolphins, pigs, fish, and much more.  Some of them are little puzzle boxes with secret openings. 

     The rules of the house are also really relaxed for a retail store that carries such expensive merchandise.  The kids are allowed to touch pretty much everything and Richard's only rule about taking pictures is that "you show them to everyone you know and tell them what a great rock shop it is."

     Parents love to bring their kids to the store because of the educational value.  As a professional geologist who has a seven year-old son of his own, Richard has become really good at explaining geological processes to children.  He has even given special talks to home school groups, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. 

     Decorators make up the next group.  Considering their many sizes, shapes and colors, rocks often make good accents for rooms.  Richard will sometimes have decorators come in to tell him that they need a blue rock for a blue room and so forth.


     Being the only major provider of non-native rocks and minerals, he often sells to dedicated hobbyists such as himself.  His store is something of an oasis to what he calls the "true mineral collectors."
     "I have people who come from St. Mary's County to get here," he said.  "People will drive across a whole state to get to a rock shop if they're into it."


      The fourth category of customers are those who practice what he terms "new age healing" who believe in the spiritual power of natural rock and mineral crystals.  But you don't have to believe in non-conventional medicine to appreciate an other-worldly subtext to Earthly Elements.  Most of the big rocks in the store are millions, if not hundreds of millions, years old.  Whether you believe that crystals enhance your cosmic energies, or if you feel a special connection to God by holding some of his oldest creations on earth, or if your mind is blown thinking about the massive geological forces that forged the merchandise, it isn't difficult to get goose bumps while wandering around there. 
     What I am talking about is hard to describe, but it reminds me of what the tour guide at the Washington National Cathedral said about stones in the church.  He said that saints relics run contrary to the Episcopal faith, so instead they had special rocks that "give pause for thought," such as a moon rock in a stained-glass window, a mason stone touched by a bishop, and an altar made from stone quarried in the Holy Land.  Whatever your belief system, it's hard not to feel a sense of awe in Earthly Elements. 

Earthly Elements
33 North Market St.
Frederick, MD 21701
(301) 631-5511
Hours: Tuesday - Thursday 12-6, Friday-Saturday 12-9, Sunday 12-5
http://www.earthlyrocks.com 

Contra Dancing in Shepherdstown

    Have you ever seen those period Jane Austen movies that make a quaint little spectacle of the English gentry dancing in long proper lines to rhythmic but discrete music?  Now imagine those same long lines, only set to a pumped up version of the same type of music while receiving instructions from a caller after square-dance fashion.  Add in fiddles, guitar, banjos, pianos, hammered dulcimers, various woodwinds and a room full of happy people of all ages.  Now shake well (don't stir) and you have a general picture of contra dancing!

 

(Called by Beverly Smith to the music of Rhythm Method)

     Every first Saturday of the month I venture with friends and family to the little village of Shepherdstown, WV to engage in this bizarre social ritual, but last night I seized the opportunity to talk with two prominent members of the board of Shepherdstown Music and Dance which is responsible for running the dances each month.
      "I start out by telling people that it's social dancing, sort of like square dancing, but in two long lines," said Becky Lidgerding, a long-time board member.
     And what of the weird name?  Almost sounds like "anti-dancing," right?
     According to board member Joanie Blanton, "Contra is a long-ways set dance where you dance 'contrary' or 'opposite' your partner.  It comes from 'contredanse' which came from France.  The long-ways set dances known as 'contra dances' became very popular in early America where both the English and the French traditions merged."
     Originally a synthesis of several traditional European folk styles that came together in the little villages of New England, it really spread around the rest of the country during a youth revival of folk music several decades ago.
     "It's what the young, free-spirited people were doing in the seventies," Becky told me with a laugh.
     I can tell you from my own experience that the dance has certainly maintained its "free-spirited" nature as Becky calls it.  I remember being quite a stick-in-the-mud before my concerned friends forcefully dragged my seventeen year-old self to the Frederick dance.  Before then, I never attended popular social dances because of the typical woes of an awkward teenage male.  Namely, I didn't know how to dance, I didn't have a date and I didn't like strangers.  But contra, as it would turn out, is a totally different scene.  Each dance begins with a workshop for newbies that teaches you step-by-step break downs of common move sets.  In addition, before the start of each dance of the evening, the specifics of that particular dance get a detailed walk-through.  No need to worry about bringing a date because everyone freely asks everyone else to dance.  Because of the way it's structured, you have to do some level of dancing with everyone in the room whether you ask them to be your specific partner or not.  It's a little awkward at first, but I immediately noticed that the experienced dancers were naturally jovial, non-judgmental, and eager to help me learn.  During the break the other dancers made an active effort to know me.
     As Joanie said, "Once you learn the dance you can relax and listen to the music and interact with every person you meet in a different way and it's really fun."

  (This video taken by the talented hand of Sasha)

  I still remember that on the night of my first Shepherdstown dance (11/30/2002) a large group of the teenagers took to the streets singing Christmas carols throughout the town.  With people like this, it's impossible for even the most reluctant of souls to avoid becoming one of them!

Interview with Sasha Crum about why she loves to contra dance

What: Contra Dancing
When: First Saturday evening of every month.  Beginners workshop starts at 7:30, dance at 8:00
Where:  Shepherdstown Men's Club
             War Memorial Building
             102 E. German St.
             Shepherdstown, WV 25443
For more info about contra and the many other SMAD events, visit them online at http://www.smad.us

            

Tools of the Trade

As a one-man features section, I never know when I will encounter something of interest to my readers, so I am never without the trusty implements that enable me to translate real-world adventures into the written word.  Because I want you to get to know me and my personal style more and more as I develop my new blog, I thought I would share some information about the tools of my trade and how I use them.

The Moleskine Note Pad

This leather-bound beauty beats the socks off of dime-store note pads both in terms of style and reliability.  It fits perfectly in my inside coat-pocket, has highly durable pages that don't tear easily, and just feels great in the palm of my hand.  I gravitate toward older aesthetic forms and feel a sense of continuity from using a descendant of the famous notebook series used by geniuses such as Hemingway and Fitzgerald.  I don't use it for long interviews because I'm a painfully slow hand-writer, but it's great for jotting down little details and reminders about my surroundings, especially in shops and museums that don't allow photography.

A tiny silver pen

 












Standing at all of three inches long, this little lightening bolt clips easily to the cover of my notebook.  It hits on the perfect balance of being small enough to fit anywhere and long enough so that even my large fingers can manipulate it with ease.  Usually little novelty pens don't write very well, but this one glides as gently as its more conventional big brothers and has a long-lasting ink supply.  Sadly, I don't know who makes them!  Please let me know if you find out.

Sony Digital Voice Recorder

I wish I could remember all of the specs, but I believe this essential convenience has more than a day's worth of digital recording time.  It allows you to store your sound files in several different internal folders and even has some on-the-spot basic editing features.  I don't know the technical terms to describe its sound-quality, but it's good enough that I'm considering using it to post audio clips to this blog.  Remember I said that I can't write fast enough to take down interviews?  This is how I get around that little defect of nature.

The Canon Camera
I couldn't use my camera to take a picture of my camera, so I will just tell you that it is a Canon IXUS 9515.  I am nothing close to a professional photographer or graphic designer, so for my purposes this tiny 10-megapixel gem that fits in a pocket with the recorder does just fine.  It's easy to pull out on a moment's notice and its battery lasted me an entire day of heavy picture-taking in Canterbury.  It even has a pretty good video recorder, but I'm not quite sure I want to use it for regular video postings.

The Hat

Don't know what in the world this has to do with information gathering?  Then I suggest that on some rainy day you attempt to hold an umbrella while taking notes and pictures.  Hand-woven woolen tweed, it keeps my head perfectly dry no matter how severe the downpour.  I picked this up while I was earning my Masters degree in Ireland.  Contrary to what some of my friends over there seem to speculate, I'm not pretending to be Irish, I'm just trying to avoid a cold.

Intro

The concept of this blog is pretty simple.  I'm a former full-time news reporter turned freelance features writer who loves the area where he grew up.  The City of Frederick, MD and the county bearing the same name sit on a unique liminal space between the busy Washington, DC metro region and the rural countrysides of Virginia, West Virginia, western Maryland and Pennsylvania.  This means that I can spend my morning hiking the Appalachian Trail near Harpers Ferry, WV and spend my evening taking in an opera at the Kennedy Center.

Many people who live around here can and do do the same sorts of things, but with my background in local media I have resources that will hopefully bring a little more to the table.  Though much of this blog will be formed by my own impressions of the places I visit and the things I do, I also plan to conduct interviews with some local movers and shakers.  For example, it seems that the entire East Coast is hatching schemes to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War which takes place over the next five years, so I hope to talk with the folks who are making things happen locally and then post those interviews here.  Depending on how confident I feel about my technical capabilities, I may even venture into adding audio and/or video clips to my posts.

If you know of anything in the area, from a great restaurant to your favorite park, that lies within 50 miles or so from Frederick County, MD and that you feel could deserve a free plug from me, by all means feel free to e-mail me at TheFrederickFiles@Gmail.com