Your one-stop shop for healing herbs, trippy teas and holistic drops, Elixir Tonics and Teas on Melrose Avenue (where else?) isn’t just for New Age types or Far East aficionados. There is a soothing, secluded garden in back where you can sit for hours, nursing an inexpensive pot or two of fresh, hand-processed, imported tea. Bring your laptop or strike up a conversation with a stranger on the relative merits of earl grey versus black ginger peach. Both the store and the garden offer a rare, quiet haven amid the bustle and flow of Melrose, and you really will feel like you’ve been transported to a peaceful new place while you’re there. If you arrive with a specific ailment, the on-site herbalist (who is licensed in TCM – Traditional Chinese Medicine) will help you find an appropriate palliative. Remedies claiming to prevent everything from standard hang-overs and headaches to mild depression and the sniffles line the shelves in large take-home bottles or miniature stopper drops, and darling teapots, teacups, magnets, Zen books and other Asian accoutrement make terrific housewarming gifts or stocking stuffers. Elixir Tonics and Teas has been around since 1996 and continues to grow in popularity – maybe those vitality and longevity tonics really work.