Tea

From time to time, a new business opens in our neighbourhood that appears to make no sense. Often this lack of sensibility portends failure; the fishing tackle shop around the corner has closed, and one imagines that the kite/knitting shop that took its place cannot be too far behind.

I think Brìgh Music & Tea, however, is an exception.

While, on first blush, the notion of a shop selling tea and musical instruments appears to make no sense, once you walk in the door, meet the genial owners Mary and Cian, and realize there is method to the mad combination of music and tea, confidence in the enterprise’s future begins to emerge.

I’m enough of a musician to walk in the door of a music store, but, more often than not, I immediately feel like an interloper, and make haste lest I be asked whether I prefer dominant 7ths or minor 6ths. I would never, ever think of actually picking up an instrument.

At Brìgh, though, I have an alibi: I’m drinking tea, eating Katlin Doyle’s excellent chocolate, and listening to the impromptu jam sessions that appear to be a regular occurrence. I have a reason to be there.

And so, while I didn’t quite have what it took to pick up the lovely banjo hanging on the wall–someday–we did feel comfortable experimenting with the shakers, carimbas, drums, kazoos, and other musical curiosities that adorn the walls.

The tea–a lovely peppermint–was excellent, as was Katlin’s new Scottish Pureh tea-infused chocolate bar, shared with Oliver. And the musical accompaniment from the pipes and the fiddle as we sat on the stoop on a sunny Saturday was appreciated.

Cian and Mary seem, as near as I can tell, to be among the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Put all that together and perhaps Brìgh make more sense than first appears. I hope they’re a fixture on Water Street for the long haul.

If you know me at all, you know that I’m a sucker for a good tea slash craft supply shop, and Halifax has not disappointed: out of the corner of my eye this morning, while walking the waterfront boardwalk, I spotted Yu Yo, tucked into a corner of the Brewery Market building on Lower Water Street.

We entered tentatively, as we weren’t sure they were open–it’s not a splashy place with flashing “come in we’re open” signs–and I immediately recognized this as a shop placed on Earth specifically for me.

We started out with a bracing flagon of strong, hot ginger tea, the kind of tea that warms you to the bone:

We then adjourned to the other half of the shop, where all manner of interesting crafting items are on offer. In lieu of my first impulse to just say “wrap up one of everything,” I carefully curated a selection thereof, and emerged after 30 minutes with what you see here:

Four notebooks, two boxes of business card-sized brown card stock, two travel diaries, 10 bookmark-sized envelopes, a small rubber stamp set of numbers and days of the week, and two dozen tiny binder clips.

As Yu Yo is just up the street from the new Discovery Centre, where we plan to spend a good part of the upcoming week, I suspect we’ll be back.

Recommended.