Cherry Blossoms, Wuhan, China

Welcome to the new bimonthly Yocha Newsletter! As sharp readers will already know, bimonthly can mean either twice a month or once every two months. We’ll leave you to work out which meaning applies in this case. Anyway, this is newsletter number thirty so we deserve a bit of slack.

Good, now that’s out of the way, let’s quickly recap the last couple of months at Yocha. And they were certainly a busy two months for us with more new customers and more sales than we’ve seen since first opening our doors way back in 2020. So that’s good news – touch wood! Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays have been especially hectic recently, which means that our wonderful staff may not always be able to do full justice to our Kung Fu Tea demonstration on these days. We will of course continue to explain as much as we can about the types of tea and how to serve and drink it like a pro, but time (like the patience of those customers waiting for their Ramen) may be short. Apologies for this but if you would really prefer the full monty version (figuratively speaking) it might be best to time your visit to Yocha for weekday mornings or evenings.    

Next up, some workshop news and we resumed normal service in March with a Mahjong workshop early in the month followed by a Kung Fu Tea workshop a couple of weeks later. Both were fully subscribed and much was learnt about Mahjong and tea respectively.

In April we ran two further workshops, one on the ever-popular subject of Chinese Ink Painting. This saw 15 happy participants learning the ancient art of painting with ink and brushes on a traditional Chinese fan. It should have been 16 but one was MIA. We suspect they forgot all about it and slept in. In future, we’ll try to do a better job of reminding those taking part in our workshops closer to the date - although, unfortunately, we can’t make alarm calls.

The second workshop in April was a new one for us, and for the 11 guinea pigs taking part. We decided, perhaps a little rashly, to give away the secret to making our super-popular Yochi Mochi sweet snacks. These are based on the traditional Japanese mochi with a little Yocha twist. On the day, our mochi fans had enormous fun playing with soft glutinous flour dough, cream and various other ingredients to make their very own versions of this delicious treat. And then they ate them all. Well, what do you expect? And, strangely, no one was AWOL. Congratulations to our new mochi masters (but keep the secret lads!)

Of course we have more workshops planned for May so keep an eye on our Instagram and Facebook accounts for more details (and try not to sleep in!)  

April in Uppsala of course means ‘Sista April’ - the last day of April - the local term for Valborg or the Eve of St Walpurgis Day, which is May 1st. We’ve covered this before in our newsletter so for those of you who weren’t paying attention, a fuller description is available here. In short, a lot of students, booze, singing, dressing up, boats and caps – all in a small city - can lead to quite ‘interesting’ results. In our first year we chickened out and decided to remain closed, after all we’d just opened the previous month; last year we stayed open with some trepidation and found it was actually quite fun; this year? Well, we’re veterans now so we’ll be throwing our caps in the air and singing with the best of them (possibly … this newsletter was written the day before Valborg.) 

Valborg in Uppsala, photo by Shubhesh Aggarwal

Staying with the party spirit, on March the 17th we celebrated Yocha Studio’s second anniversary – yes, it’s been two whole years since we first nervously opened our doors on Kungsängsgatan, Uppsala! It’s been quite a ride, and definitely a learning experience, for a small team with plenty of enthusiasm, talent and a clear idea of what we wanted Yocha to be, but no previous experience in running a business. As we said before, it has been a pleasure and a privilege to share all the ups and downs of this adventure with our many customers and friends so – a big thank you to you all! To mark the occasion, we closed a little early on the day and held a special evening of tea, champagne, plenty of Asian food - and even song – for a few of our loyal regulars (well, more than fifty of them actually). It also happened to be the birthday of one very special member of the Yocha Team. So, as well as an anniversary party, we had a birthday party too (not to mention St. Patricks’s Day!). Due to a slight miscommunication, no less than three birthday cakes appeared at the appointed time (thank you Marjana, Fergus and Landings Konditori), but it was all good and after a bit of candle blowing and fervent wishing all cakes were consumed with gusto. So, Happy Birthday to Yocha and Happy Birthday to X.

As our more astute readers will no doubt have noticed – at least those living in the northern hemisphere – the days are getting longer and the nights shorter. This is a cause of great joy up here in Sweden after a long, cold, lonely winter. To make full use of this free light (not even Uppsala Kommun have found a way to charge for that yet), Yocha Studio is delighted to announce that we will be extending our evening opening hours from May 1st until … sometime when it starts getting dark early again. So that means even more daytime for you to relax with a real tea or special Yocha beverage, slurp some great Ramen noodles, chomp into a deliciously soft Yochi Mochi, browse our quirky Asian design items for that perfect summer present - or simply put your head back, look up at the sky and say, “Here comes the Sun again!” You’re welcome.

Plate丨Ginkgo Leaf

Finally, we thought we’d mention that, towards the end of the month two members of the Yocha team travelled to Stockholm to attend a lecture and exhibition on Chinese calligraphy. Presented by three eminent calligraphy experts from the Chinese National Academy of Painting, the event showcased the origins, history and beauty of traditional Chinese calligraphy at the highest level and discussed recent findings in the field. We mention this, not to show off how cultured and refined we are, or that we know the way to Stockholm, but rather to demonstrate the lengths to which the Yocha team will go to ensure that our next Chinese calligraphy workshop will be even better informed and more up to date on the latest ideas than ever (but we are pretty cultured and refined all the same, and we do know how to get to Stockholm.)   

Dr. Tang Chaoyi, China National Academy of Painting

And before we go, as ever, we understand that you may not have been able to make it to the Yocha Studio store in Uppsala (even for our anniversary celebrations and the friendly mayhem that is Valborg) 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.

Till next month (or even the one after),

Best bimonthly wishes,

from the Yocha Team.

P.S. Spot the song reference, name the songwriter and be first to tell one of the staff at Yocha and a free tea awaits you!

Plate丨Tang Dynasty Lady