Tian Shan, 7439 metres, China

Following our new bimonthly format here comes newsletter - No. 31 - covering all the exciting happenings in and around Yocha Studio over May and June 2024!

After a long, cold, white winter, mercurial May did its usual thing here in Uppsala. The month started off with bare trees, freezing temperatures and the odd snow shower but wrapped up with green trees, temperatures in the high 20s, blue skies and sunshine. Now somewhere in there spring obviously occurred - but if you weren’t watching closely, or perhaps overslept one day, you probably missed it. Summer continued in June with good weather interspersed with the odd rainy day to keep things nice and green, so no complaints so far.

Along with the changing weather, the past couple of months have also seen some changes in the Yocha Team. Our long-standing kitchen stalwart and early morning opener, Marjana, has unfortunately had to leave Sweden for reasons beyond her control. Alas, while the internet may have revolutionized remote working, unfortunately mochis still cannot be made, mooncakes carefully crafted, nor customers cheerily greeted online via Zoom or Teams. All of us here at Yocha truly appreciate Marjana’s hard work over the past year and, above all, her permanently cheerful attitude, despite sometimes trying circumstances. We, along with many of our customers and the friends she has made here, will miss her and wish her all the luck she richly deserves in the future. Thank you, Marjana!!

At the same time, on a happier note, we welcome our newest member of the team, Romina! With her flawless Swedish, Spanish and English she extends our linguistic capabilities, while her efficiency, enthusiasm, friendliness and calmness under pressure have allowed her to slot seamlessly into the busy Yocha schedule. Welcome to the team Romina!

From the left: Marjana, Momoko, Kwang, Romina

In other recent changes, for reasons best known to themselves, Uppsala Kommun has decided that Yocha Studio is no longer located at Kungsängsgatan 5B but instead at Kungsängsgatan 7. Fortunately, this does not mean we have to actually move anywhere, just that if you want to send us a birthday card or unsolicited gifts, that is the address you will have to use in future. Whether this change will resolve the chronic problems we have in receiving post and packages from PostNord and other mail services remains to be seen.

With the arrival of warmer days, we felt it was time to introduce a couple of extra ‘climate appropriate’ options to our food and drinks menu. While a bowl of steaming ramen or a hot Chinese tea is never to be sneezed at, we thought something more cooling might appeal to customers seeking respite from the summer heat. So, in the beverage line, please welcome our ‘Summer Breeze’ - a refreshing and delightfully sour concoction based on crushed passionfruit, soda and fresh lemon and lime - guaranteed to awaken the most jaded summer palate. And if a cold lunch is more your style, then our ‘Cold Noodle Salad’ based on traditional Chinese cold noodles with a special sesame dressing, could be just what you are looking for - all the authentic Yocha taste without the heat! Available, along with all our other summer options, all summer long (well, as long as summer lasts).

Summer Breeze & Noodle Salad

In early May, Yocha founder, Zoe, was invited to lunch by the Knivsta Rotary Club to give a monthly talk to their members on a subject of her choice. She spoke eloquently about the challenges and rewards of opening up a business in Sweden as a foreigner – especially one with no business background! Zoe also took the opportunity to spread the word about tea and Asian culture in general. She even brought along Chinese teas, teaware and tea ceremony implements, which she used to give the great and the good of Knivsta an impromptu Kung Fu tea demonstration!

These last two months also saw us continuing our cultural workshops, which we feel are one of the most important aspects of our work here at Yocha. Amongst those held in May and June were our ever-popular Matcha workshop in May where this traditional form of Japanese/Chinese tea making was taught and learnt with equal enthusiasm. Meanwhile, in June we were visited by a number of enamel experts all the way from China who demonstrated examples of their work in this centuries old art and answered questions on the technique involved and the history of their craft. In the coming months we hope to expand our cultural workshops to include aspects of Thai culture along with Chinese and Japanese – watch this space!

Matcha Whisk
 

Staying with the cultural theme - and spreading our wings a little – on the 21st May, Yocha founder Zoe Thompson was asked to attend an event in Stockholm coinciding with International Tea Day– did you know there was such a thing? Neither did we!! The ‘Tea for Harmony’ cultural salon preceded a Chinese folk music performance organized by the Chinese Cultural Association at the beautiful Lilla Akademien Music School in southern Stockholm. Yocha Studio was charged with running Kung Fu tea demonstrations and explaining Chinese tea culture to visitors while Chinese music played in the background and various dignitaries, diplomatic and otherwise, strolled around doing their dignitary thing. No doubt the beautiful weather helped, but we were impressed by the huge interest in tea culture which kept Zoe busy with demonstrations and questions about tea all afternoon long!

Tray丨Moso Bamboo

Following that, at the beginning of June, Yocha Studio was invited to take part in a wonderful multicultural festival at one of Uppsala’s hidden gems, the Literaturenshus by the river Fyris in Uppsala. The Kultis culture festival celebrated art, literature, music, and simply fun on a beautiful June day at one of Uppsala’s most picturesque cultural venues. Amidst performances of Greek and Swedish folk music, traditional Ukrainian dancing, Ethiopian henna painting and literary talks, our Swedish and Chinese tea experts, Zoe and Jakob, held high the banner of Asian culture with rolling Kung Fu tea demonstrations throughout the afternoon in both Swedish and English.

As has become our custom, we again closed our doors on Midsummers Eve, which this year actually fell on the longest day, Friday the 21st of June. Midsommarafton, as it is known in Swedish, is of course one of the most important festivals of the year in Scandinavia and is generally celebrated with Maypole (and other weirder) dancing, the wearing of floral crowns known as midsommarkrans, the eating of special midsummer delicacies such as herring and strawberries (not usually together) and, of course, the odd bonfire. This unusual day off allowed us to tackle a few maintenance tasks best carried out on the rare occasions when our store is empty. So, while others were dancing, drinking and making merry on Midsummer’s Eve, some senior member of the Yocha team were busily installing new kitchen equipment and fixing loose benches and chairs so our customers won’t fall off them. Not at all, you’re welcome!

Another (somewhat) important date in the Swedish summer is June 6th, Sveriges nationaldag or Sweden’s national day. However, the celebrations are not exactly along the lines of July the 4th in the US, or St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland. Apart from an event in Stockholm’s Skansen Park involving the King and Queen of Sweden, Swedish television and a few hundred onlookers, nothing much really happens. Indeed, you might not even notice it was National Day unless a kindly Swede told you so. With delightful Swedish understatement it is generally marked with nothing more than a few national flags flying here and there (we had one in Yocha Studio of course!) and the general feeling that ‘at least we get a day off work’. All this is perhaps understandable if you take into account that June 6th has only been a national holiday for 20 years. One Swedish acquaintance of Yocha cryptically remarked when asked how they would celebrate the day, “National Day is only for the Stockholmers”.  Ooooohhh – burn!!

And before we go, as ever, we understand that you may not have been able to make it to the Yocha Studio store in person (even for our deliciously cooling summer drinks and cold noodle salad), but remember, you can still check out our website www.yochastudio.com or social media channels for the latest news on all our Asian design products available for purchase online – all with delivery to your door.

All in all, things are definitely looking brighter since the dark days of December so, till August, may your summer be bright and merry too!

Best wishes,

from the Yocha Team.

Plate丨Rolling Clouds