Written by Melissa Karen Sances
Photos by Nikki Gardner

Sponsored by Valley Home Improvement

Published in Northampton Living (December 2023)

 “Everyone has a connection to folk magic: It’s in your bones.” 

Mischa Roy felt at home in the darkroom. Her parents’ photography studio had a built-in playroom, but she and her brother wanted to work. They need me, her brother would plead – anything to get his hands on prints. She watched her father manifest magic. She began to channel her own.

When Mischa was 9, her parents held their first open studio in Boston. She made an art board of her own pictures, which she sold for a cool 25 or 50 cents each. “She sold more that day than we did,” recalls her mother, Laura (Angie) Roy, who draws a straight line between Mischa’s upbringing and her now owning Spill the Tea Sis Apothecary and Home + Gift on Main Street.

But let’s go back. A few years after that fateful open studio, Angie got into a car accident that would propel her into a healing journey. While Mischa honed her craft and began making collages in Northampton, she shadowed her mother through a decade of holistic training. Slowly, their lives diverged. Angie remarried and Mischa moved to Florida, where she ran a wholesale art business.

Two years ago, they were reunited when Angie’s husband and Mischa’s father died within 2 months of each other. “I’ll never forget the way she looked when she came in the door after my dad passed,” says Mischa. She knew it was time to come home.  

In a post-COVID world wrestling with its own grief, Mischa had a vision: She would walk her mother through heartache. She would usher Northampton out of isolation. When she found the 600-square-foot space at 183 Main Street, her vision started coming to fruition.

Spill the Tea Sis Apothecary opened on July 7, 2022 as an artist’s haven and a refuge for the spirit. The response was overwhelming, which didn’t necessarily surprise Mischa. “People want to know the person who makes things for them,” she explains. “They want to know the butcher who serves their favorite kind of meat.” Above all, she says, they want community. “Most of us are literally just out there searching for a little more connection.”

Angie has made close friends with patrons who take part in Spill the Tea’s New and Full Moon Rituals, where people gather to discuss their personal practices. But helping a customer find the right gift can be equally intimate, equally healing.

“I’ve lived in grief for 2 years,” says Angie. “I’ve certainly talked to many people who’ve come into the store and are walking through something. ‘Can I get a candle?’ they’ll ask. ‘Is there something I can do?’ I think that some people seek faith. And if we can provide assistance in that process, I’d be more than glad to, because I’ve been seeking faith my whole life.”

Within 6 months, Spill the Tea Sis Apothecary outgrew its space at 183 Main. In a wink from the Universe, Mischa soon came across the second location at 177 Main. She knew the seller, Nancy Cowen; in fact, she had known her for 20 years. When Mischa was 17, Nancy was the first person in Northampton to buy her art. The transition would bring them full-circle.

Spill the Tea Home + Gift opened on May 5, 2023. “The first space is really about helping people connect to their spiritual roots,” says Mischa. “Everyone has a connection to folk magic: It’s in your bones.” The second space, she says, is about gifting with intention. The store’s signature candles are hand-poured every day, and most products are handmade by local artists. (For more about gifting with intention, see Mischa’s November 2023 feature in Northampton Living, “The Art of Giving: 10 Tips for Intentional Gifting this Holiday Season.”)

Ultimately, Mischa has facilitated a kind of healing journey for the community. In addition to its monthly moon-based rituals, Spill the Tea holds frequent donation-based events. Last June they hosted the inaugural Sunday Block Party in Northampton, an annual event that turns Main Street into one big art party. And Mischa was recently named the coordinator of Arts Night Out, a community-building evening she remembers from her teenage years, when she’d come to a gallery opening with her parents, get dinner, and enjoy everything downtown had to offer.

Both locations are open 6 days per week (7 during the holiday season), and Mischa and Angie are almost always on-hand. Angie notes that people think she’s the owner because she’s the oldest of a staff ranging in age from 17 to 67. To her, Mischa is “the big boss.” But Mischa, 37, recognizes that she “is pretty young for people to respect me.” That may be true, but the stores are an act of love from an old soul, and she is a celestial conduit between dark and light. “Magic is as real as anything,” she says. “But the reality is I’m just a vessel to help people find their way.”