Success can smell just like peppermint

2002-11-27

Uncommon Grounds owners find Aroma Bar appeals to stressed clients...

Business: Uncommon Grounds, 266 Myrtle Ave., Boonton, (973) 316-0606

Hours: 4 to 10 p.m. Wednesday; 4 to II p.m. Thursday; 4 p.m. to midnight Friday; noon to midnight Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Owners: Anne Bryant and Sandra Stokem got ahead by learning to relax. By 1993, both were fed up with being frazzled in corporate management careers. Because each had an interest in the alternative healing scene, they pooled their resources and started Scents of Pride Stress Release boutiques in Newfoundland and Lake Hiawatha.

At first, they sold aromatherapy products in the holistic community As overworked New Jersey professionals discovered them, they also began making house calls to executives in need of a peppermint fix.

We did a lot of stress release with communications corporations," Stokem said. "We'd go into their buildings with our products, and they'd wait for us to come and help de-stress them."

As their clientelle expanded, the two found they had tapped into a growing trend. Once relegated to the "New Age" lifestyle, holistic medicine now appealed to a far more diverse audience.

Hoping to bring different customer blocs together, Bryant and Stokem consolidated their stores in August 2000, adding a restaurant, cafe, massage, music and open mic night. "Angels to Zen": Their retail boutique "is A to Z," Stokem said. "We carry a bit of everything."

The Scents of Pride store, now nestled within Uncommon Grounds cafe, stocks aromatherapy supplies and books along with such accessories as compact discs, candles, bath salts and alcohol-free perfumes.

Bryant and Stokem make many of their products and distribute a separate wholesale line to health food stores,

Aromatherapy: This involves essential oils, whose strong, flavorful scents are used to calm, heal or heighten a state of mind. Most pure oils cost $6. Customers can pour them into diffusing lamps to fragrance a room, mix them into massage oils, rub them on the skin or dilute them in bath soaks.

Visitors to Uncommon Grounds also inhale the oils at an Aroma Bar.

Tasters' choice: After a rough day at the office, clients can try a different atmosphere at the bar, where they breathe the scents of forests, fruit groves and spices through a diffuser for $2 a hit.
We have blends on tap. As you inhale, the blend goes to your olfactory nerve. It promotes either relaxation or stimulation, depending on the oil.

Aromatherapy fans find that the scents enhance physical and emotional well-being. Each flavor has its healing qualities.

Lavender and chamomile are relaxing. They're used-in massage and inhalation to relieve tension. Bergamot is a woodsy lemon oil that's great in winter to relieve anxiety. Camphors and eucalyptus are expectorants for a congested chest. Peppermint is for sinuses and migraines, and geranium is good for women. 'Hormonal balancing,' we call it. Then there are sensual oils that are natural aphrodisiacs, such as jasmine, patchouli and ylang ylang. We also customize blends.

Healing touch: Uncommon Grounds offers four massage therapies and Reiki healing. An aromatherapist is on staff, so customers can combine a shiatsu, Swedish, neuromuscular or deep tissue massage session with essential oil remedies. All treatments cost $60 an hour or $35 for a half-hour.

Tea and comfort: The restaurant serves a light healthfood menu, with most meals costing less than $10. Soups, such as carrot ginger, lentil and butternut squash, are specialties, but diners can also fill up on hummus, quiche, salads and a variety of wraps.

The cafe sells gourmet coffees, cappuccino and chai for caffeine hounds; desserts; and 50 international teas.

There are cold and hot tea lines. We have rare, exotic teas from around the world, a lot of green teas, Chinese and white tea. They're used for all different purposes, like relaxing, sleep, throat and joint pain and lymphatic cleansing.

Artists perform at the cafe every night, including regulars and hopeful newcomers.

Musicians and poets come here from all over the tri-state area. The music is jazz, folk, Celtic. We have a belly dancer from New York who dances with swords and fans. There's a trio with a sitar, a cello and a dancer. On Wednesdays, we have an open mic, where local talent is welcome to come and play.

Customers: Uncommon Grounds draws a following from throughout New Jersey and surrounding states, Stokem said.

Some are attracted by philosophical ideas that thrive in the alternative healing community. Others just want medical techniques or relaxation methods to protect their health and bring balance to their lives.

Our customers are from all walks of life. We get a lot of theater people, musicians, artists, mothers who work and raise children. But the ones who really use the therapies are corporate people and nurses. Nurses are the most stressed-out clients I've ever encountered.

Part of the establishment: As alternative therapies prove helpful to both patients and their caregivers, they are finding their place in the mainstream. Stokem said many prominent New Jersey medical facilities now use essential oils as a complementary therapy.

Traditional and holistic medicine go hand in hand. Holistic medicine has always been around; it's just a choice. People are so stressed out, and they're looking for more than just a pill to relieve pain.

Hospitals order our oils for their complementary sessions, and I hear one uses sweet orange oil for its operating room. A lot of nurses use aromatherapy for stress, and with their friends here, they talk about how the doctors are getting into it.

Advice to entrepreneurs: Do what you love, as a passion. If you do the right thing, good things come back to you.