May 2, 2007

Tea shop becomes a weekly stop for sippers and diners in Aroostook CountyBy Kristen AndresenBangorDailyNews.com

In his novel “The Chosen,” Chaim Potok writes: “Come, let us have some tea and continue to talk about happy things.” Heidi Samuel lives by these words. And in central Aroostook County, so do a growing number of sippers and diners who have made a stop at Heidi’s Tea Shop in Presque Isle part of their weekly ritual.

Some come for carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, washed down with a strong cup of lavender-scented Earl Grey. Others drink in the cozy elegance of the dining room, with its white Damask tablecloths, tea-themed wallpaper and myriad teapots in all shapes and sizes. Those with a hunger that can’t be quenched by tea sate their stomachs — and their souls — with a savory Mediterranean salad and butternut squash soup, or, come dinnertime, curry-crusted pork tenderloin or a spinach ricotta souffle.

“Some of them I just know by what tea they drink,” Samuel said with a smile on a recent afternoon. “You get to know people and what they like. There are certain things you do a little bit differently for so-and-so.”

It hasn’t always been this way. In its original incarnation — a kiosk in the Aroostook Centre Mall — the tea shop wasn’t exactly intimate. But it was a start.

Samuel has had a lifelong love for tea, which was only strengthened when she and her family moved to Australia in the early 1990s. Her husband, Gregory, is in the Air Force, and he was stationed there for three years.

“The culture of tea time really set in there,” Samuel said. “All of our friends were Australian, and they all drank tea. I got used to that. I like that culture.”

Several years ago, she set up the kiosk at Christmastime, selling loose-leaf tea, tea pots and tea making paraphernalia. In two months’ time, she had amassed a steady clientele, who contacted her after the holidays to order tea. The next Christmas season, she shared a mall storefront with several other local merchants, including antiques dealer Annie Graves.

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