Town Talk
I’m big on shopping local. Supporting local. Talking about local. And having just moved to Baltimore a year ago, I’m still in the exploring stages of finding the best of local goodies. And I get the impression that no matter how long I’ve lived here, I’ll still run across new finds… even in my own neighborhood.
The Baltimore Coffee & Tea Company is within walking distance of my house and I’ve just discovered it. Now, once discovered, I’m not letting it go anytime soon. This place is *locally owned and amazing (and another reason to take the Light Rail... it’s directly off the Timonium Business Park stop). If you’ve ever been to Paris, you know what a great tea shop is—and this is a great tea shop. And coffee shop. And ice cream shop. And sandwich and pastry shop. And gift shop. It really has everything—including tables in which to enjoy the fare, and an amicable staff. Walk in and the first thing you’re hit with is the phenomenal smell. The exquisite blends of hazelnut, vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom, lemon, rose, orange and other scents swirl around, making it hard to decide what to order. That’s where the staff comes in. If you can’t decide what to have, they’ll tailor something to fit your mood. They know what’s good.
You can buy Baltimore Coffee and their tea, Eastern Shore, at Wegmans (they carry the fair trade brand), and Grauls Market, but you’ll also want to visit their own store for their massive variety. Their line of teas and infusions (fruit blends) is serious business for the tea aficionado: Brassica, Bewley’s, Walton, Stash, Chanakara, Ty-Phoo, Kusmi, Fortunes, 24 Tea Bags, London Fruit & Herb Company, Taylors of Harrogate, PG Tips Sport, etc., and they’re even the exclusive seller in the Tri-State area of Yorkshire Gold Tea Bags (they have a hard time keeping this tea in stock). Plus, their own Eastern Shore brand offers enough variety on its own to merit a visit (Peach Melba Tea, Green Tea With Cherry, Tea Forte Raspberry Nectar, Nantucket Mint, Blackberry Summer, Blueberry Lemon Tea, etc.).
And onto the coffees. This is where coffee junkies go when they die and head to heaven. There’s an entire section of the store devoted to coffees, three-coffee-bags deep—everything from standard coffees, to flavored coffees. The biggest flavored seller being Snicker-Snicker (made with chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla and hazelnut, and it really tastes like a snickerdoodle cookie), and the Friendship Blend (toasted almond, hazelnut, french vanilla and cinnamon). What makes the flavored coffees so good is that the beans are not thrown into a vat with the flavors mixed together, but rather, the beans are flavored separately and then put together. And a word about the beans. They come into the company, green, from Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala (and the Fair Trades are from Peru, Guatemala, Papua New Guinea and Colombia). They’re roasted that day. And they aren’t mixed, e.g., if you get Fair Trade, those beans have been roasted in a machine separate from the non-Fair Trade beans.
As an added bonus, the shop makes salads, sandwiches and pastries (made in the kitchen, fresh, each morning) for those who want to eat, along with a nice selection of gourmet ice creams. And there are gifts peppered throughout the store (if you need to pick up that little something for someone, the Portmeirion Cotton Tea Towels are a great all-around gift for anyone).
Mostly, though, just come in and talk to the staff and get them to whip something up for you, and then have a seat and soak up this local brand of excellence. And then tell someone else about it, because we need to support local, always… but don’t tell too many people, because, after all, The Baltimore Coffee and Tea Company is perfect enough to be a secret.
*How local? In true Baltimore fashion, we found out where the owners went to high school! Stan Constantine, the President, went to Towson High and graduated in 1969. Norman Loverde, the Vice President, went to the Polytechnic Institute and graduated in 1975. These are Baltimore boys, born and raised.
The Baltimore Coffee & Tea Company
9 West Aylesbury Road
Lutherville, Maryland 21093, U.S.A.
800-823-1408
(410) 561-1080
Fax: (410) 561-4816
Timonium Hours of Operation: Monday-Friday 7:00 am - 6:00 pm (EST) ~ Saturday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm (EST) ~ Sunday 9:00 am - 4:00 pm.
Annapolis Phone: 410-573-5792
Annapolis Fax: 410-573-5795
Annapolis Hours: Mon-Sat 7 AM - 8 PM, Sun 8 AM-5 PM (EST)
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 04/13/09 at 11:48 AM
