Coffee shop serving up a breath of fresh air

Stacy Hanna
The Enquirer

Feeling a bit sluggish? Need a little pick-me-up?

Pam Weakley and Amanda Hoxie think a cup of coffee and a little fresh air might do you good.

The new owners of What’s the Talk About Coffee and Oxygen Bar in Battle Creek are peddling not only coffee, but … oxygen?

The fresh air they’re selling has a little more kick than what we breathe in and out every day, though, and can be purchased in one-minute increments.

Oxygen bars originated in China in the early 90s and have become popular in places like Las Vegas and the Caribbean.

The Cereal City version is the only business registered as an oxygen bar in the state, according to Weakley and Hoxie.

“An oxygen bar is essentially like aromatherapy,” Hoxie said. “A small machine generates filtered, scented oxygen. Its use is recreational, mainly to refresh and relax. It’s not intended for medical use, though it’s used as a natural remedy for headaches and migraines.”

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the air we breathe every day is about 21 percent oxygen. Oxygen bars offer a more concentrated version, in varying degrees.

Under the FDA’s Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, any type of oxygen used by people for breathing and administered by another person is a prescription drug.

“It doesn’t matter what they label it,” said Melvin Szymanski, consumer safety officer with the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in a 2002 FDA Consumer magazine article. “At the end of the hose is oxygen, and the individual that provides you with the nasal cannula and turns on the canister for your 20-minute supply is actually dispensing the prescription drug oxygen to you.”

What’s the Talk About offers oxygen in 12 different aromas, concentrated slightly higher than normal at 30 percent.

“To offer 100 percent pure oxygen would require a prescription,” Weakley said, explaining that local customers would not use a nasal cannula — a two-pronged hose inserted directly into the nostrils — but instead would use a headset where the hose can be positioned near the nose or mouth.

So why do it? Why pay for air?

Hoxie and Weakley both have tried it and agree that it just makes you feel better.

“It fights fatigue, gives you more energy, relieves headaches and stress, although it might cause light-headedness the first couple of times,” Hoxie said. “It goes away quickly, though.”

Individuals must be at least 16 years of age or be accompanied by a parent to purchase oxygen at What’s the Talk About, Hoxie said.

The store, which opened at the end of October at the corner of Helmer Road and Columbia Avenue in Plaza West, will celebrate its grand opening Jan. 11.

In addition to a full selection of coffee drinks and the oxygen bar, What’s the Talk About sells soy candles, bath salts and shea butter, all produced on site by the store owners.

“That was the reason we initially decided to go into business,” Hoxie said. “Then we realized we probably couldn’t support a business with just candles — it’s such a seasonal product — so we decided to add some other things.”

“The oxygen bar makes us unique, we think,” Weakley said. “There’s nothing else like us in town.”

Stacy Hanna covers business. She can be reached at 966-0468 or sthanna@battlecr.gannett.com

Originally published December 28, 2005