The Alchemist's Kitchen
The other day when I was walking home, I passed by a shop in Soho that piqued my interest -- The Alchemist's Kitchen. Is this a dispensary? A medicine shop? A restaurant?
In the spirit of reducing social anxiety, I've been pushing myself to actually go into shops/bars/restaurants that look interesting, even if only to ask a trivial question like "can I see the menu?" or "what time do you close?"
After meandering a bit, I found myself in a full blown conversation with one of the employees. Little did I know that I'd be the one getting asked questions this time.
"What are your biggest problems?"
Oh boy. Like I know you're asking because you're trying to recommend herbs based on my own personal flavors of suffering, but I met you not but 3 minutes ago.
I answered honestly, albeit superficially. At the end of our conversation, I asked, "so how much is a week's worth of tea going to cost me?" Turns out the botanicals I chose, Skullcap, were 5 bucks for an ounce, which apparently is over a week of tea.
I had absolutely no intention of buying anything when I walked into this shop, but this lovely person took the time to try to personalize an herbal remedy for me, and a week's worth of tea for about the price of a cortado? I'll take it!
Even though online shopping and excessively speedy shipping can feel very convenient, there's something special in wandering through a random shop and making a human connection with the shopkeeper.
I prefer to buy things from people who are earnestly excited about what they're selling! There's more to a purchase than minimizing the amount of money spent -- alas, experiencing a pleasant human connection while shopping is quite a rarity these days.
I might return for another week's worth of botanicals, just for that.