A Century of Tradition

In the market of Hakaniemi lies a 98 years old idyllic market hall full 
of food and grocery. In Finnish it is called 'Hakaniemen kauppahalli'. 
Architect Karl Hård af Segerstad designed this brick building with 
beautiful details. When you step in you are surrounded by several 
small boutiques in two floors. All together there are 66 stores. It is a 
kind of an own world full of feeling and colours. The salesmen are 
friendly and quality of the products is very high. You could spend a 
whole day there enjoying the goods and foods... 
In the middle of small stall stands a legendary 'Siirtomaatavaraliike 
Parhiala' – a colonial store for goods which was founded in 1914. Since 
its establishment it has stood in the same place all years long. That is 
something! The same Parhiala family still owns the company. It is 
older than the state of Finland, which got its independence from 
Russia in 6th of December 1917, which we just celebrated! 
I had an honour to ask couple questions from the owner, Mr Markku 
Parhiala concerning the store's background and of course of its tea 
collection. It was his grandmother, Fanny Parhiala, who started the 
company. At the time of its establisment the store was in the area of 
leftist labor movement called the Red Guard, in the quarters of Kallio 
and Hakaniemi, 


       “It was a really strange time then. It was time before the Finnish 
       Civil War in 1918. In its first years the store sold probably 
       apples, flour, onions etc. The collection of goods was very simple, 
       thought Mr Parhiala.”


At the time when the store was born it was customary to use the 
owner's last name in the shop title and also to tell what the shop was 
selling. In this case it was 'siirtomaatavaraliike', that meaning a shop 
for colonial goods. Then it was easy for people to recognize what kind 
of service they would get from there . Tea has been sold in this store 
from the 1920's. It was brought from Russia through Vyborg (which 
was a Finnish city until 1944) and due to the prohibition it started to 
be a popular drink among people. Nowadays their tea collection is 
bought from different European importers. The most important 
importer for them is the Finnish company called Forsman Tea.
Parhiala sells almost 120 different kinds of tea. They try to take 
notice of their their clients wishes, though sometimes the wishes are 
a bit overly demanding:


      “People ask if we would have a tea with honey in it. They say that 
      it would be easier to have tea like that than to add the honey 
      yourself, wondered Mr Parhiala.”


As a company to me in this lovely world of tea, spices and all the little 
marvels, was my old childhood friend Tuula Nikkola, who is also 
originally from Kiiminki. Now she lives in Järvenpää and works in 
Helsinki in a rehabilitating community home for mental health and 
psychoactive drug patients. She is a nurse oriented in psychiatry.
As the Parhiala's stall just sells tea we tried to find a nice place to sit 
down, have a cup and have a chat.


In the second floor lies a nice little café (I didn't find a name for it). I 
ordered a sencha tea with a chicken pie and Tuula chose rooibos tea 
with tuna and egg toast. We were both very hungry so the tea moment 
was really needed! This was not a proper place to have good tea as my 
sencha was infused in too hot water. Though the chicken pie and the 
toast were really delicious! Tuula enjoyed her rooibos tea. She thought 
it had a pleasantly soft taste blending well with the toast.  
We had a reason to celebrate as well as Tuula had just heard that she 
was accepted to study in the Helsinki Brief Therapy Institute Ltd in 
the course for solution­focused psychotherapy for the next three 
years. Congratulations! Her aim is to have private customers and 
therapy groups. 
Tuula is a coffee drinker. So my job was to let her know all the secrets 
of tea that I know! She only drinks tea in the evenings at home. Most 
of her tea she has got as a present. Today was an exception because 
she bought some tea from the Parhiala's store; a black ceylon tea 
flavoured with licorice and rooibos tea with a hint of mint. Since 
recently she has tried to reduce coffee drinking because she gets 
arrhythmia, which gives a good reason to change to tea! But her 
morning coffee is so important that she would not like to give up on 
that. Now she drinks at least four cups of coffee per day.
We have been friends since we were little kids. I remember visiting her 
home some evenings and they had always tea and sandwiches for 
supper. I always thought that it was so cozy. I enjoyed to be there 
greatly! I asked what kind of tea they usually had at home. 


       “It was mostly Lipton or Earl Grey teabags. In the 80's you 
       hardly could get any better from the little village foodmarkets, 
       she recalled.”


We wondered if a proper teahouse or tearoom would have any 
popularity among the people in that village nowadays. At least I would 
go there on my visits. But that's probably not enough for success! 
Finally, I asked the important question of what is the plea Tuula has 
chosen to appeal me and other readers. Her plea is very practical and 
should be used in everyday life. And it doesn't cost anything! Just a 
bit of courage. She appeals that when walking in the streets people 
should raise their heads, look around and smile at people! That can 
make somebody's day and yours as well much better. From her own 
experience she knows that it has saved her day and has given so 
much good feeling. I asked, what if someone thinks that you are 
flirting with him or her and comes after you? She said she would say 
in friendly way that the gesture was not meant in that manner, it was 
just a happy smile. That's something that we Finns should learn, to 
show some happiness! Usually here in Finland people react in strange 
ways if they find that someone is watching you. They look back 
angrily and might say: 'What are you staring at?!'. That's a very 
negative attitude to spread around.


We both were really delighted of this Hakaniemi market hall. We both 
agreed that this is an ideal place to do your Christmas shopping or 
just get the Christmas feeling. There are lots of high quality 
handicrafts. The warm and nostalgic atmosphere is like from the old 
world in the early 20th century. Each stall is full of treasures and 
secrets... At least that is how it feels like. And isn't it so that 
Christmas is the time for secrects to be shared and told? 

A Dream of Summer Fields

Tea: Pai Mu Tan. Weiße Päonie / Colonnaden Tee Contor
Infusion: 80 'C 3-4 minutes

At my afternoon tea moment I enjoyed a white tea, Pai Mu Tan , 'Weiße Päonie' (white paeony) from the company 'Colonnaden Tee Contor'. I got it as a present from Hamburg. The label says that it is gentle and fresh, which it certainly is. The recommended temperature for the water is 80' degrees and the infusing time is 3-4 minutes.

Tea for me is a way to meditate in the middle of a busy lifestyle. An attempt to harmonize your world in a small scale.

'Soft breeze of warm air moves girl''s hair and light dress

Hay growing long kisses her bare legs

feet without shoes pace along the sun-parched path

eyes slowly catching the waves of rippling heat

Daisies and paeonies infusing a slight smile on her fair face.'

Shall I introduce...

Anna-Kaisa Takkinen and Laurence Brenig-Jones, a couple living in

London, visited in Helsinki for a weekend. Anna-Kaisa is an old friend

of mine. We have known each other since we were only few months

old. Our mothers were acquaintances and lived in same village up

north, called Kiiminki. We went to the same comprehensive school

and high school. We have also shared an interest in music. Laurence

is an English guy originally from Ipswich (Suffolk) and now based in

London – as he said in Finnish: ”Olen kotoisin Ipswichistä.” He has

taken some Finnish lessons recently. That's a challenge to be

honoured! Last summer Anna-Kaisa moved to London to share her life

with Laurence. They live now in Twickenham, southwest of London.

Their get-away-weekend in Helsinki consisted meeting friends and

family and having a picnic in a park enjoying 'glögi' (that's similar to a

mulled wine) and 'joulutorttu' (a sweet plum pastry served specially

during the Christmas season). What a nice idea! Laurence is a

strategy analyst in strategy team of head office in Waitrose, a big

supermarket chain in UK. Anna-Kaisa is an interior designer and

works now part-time in London in an office which designs jewellery

shops.

We decided to meet in Café Aalto which according to hearsays has a

quite nice tea collection. Café Aalto is located in Akateeminen

kirjakauppa, a large bookshop at the corner of Keskuskatu and

Pohjoisesplanadi in central Helsinki. A famous Finnish architect Alvar

Aalto designed the building called Rautatalo, an Ironhouse, in 1955

for business and office purposes. This café has been in this building

since 1986. Its architect was Roy Mänttäri. Part of the furniture has

been designed by Arne Jacobsen and the other part by Alvar Aalto.

That's where the name is derived from. The café is owned by a family

company.

Café culture in Finland is very young. The European habit of drinking

coffee and tea in cafés arrived here in the 1980s. The culture for

teahouses and teashops is even younger. Only in recent years have

there emerged a few in Helsinki and in some other cities.

Laurence ordered a pot of black tea (it was not mentioned in the

menu, which kind of black tea, though). Me and Anna-Kaisa shared a

common interest in the jasmine tea, which had a beautiful flower in

the tea cup. To accompany the tea I had a piece of cheesecake. Anna-Kaisa 

and Laurence respected the Finnish traditions and chose

Karelian pie (savory pie made of rye with rice inside). I should have

chosen better as the cheesecake was too sweet with jasmine tea.

Anna-Kaisa also thought that the Karelian pie wasn't any better

match. Maybe something lighter and more fruity would have been

better. We all agreed that you have to think more carefully what to eat

with tea; almost everything goes well with coffee. Although with an

traditional English tea most of the sweet and savory dishes tastes

good. Already after some months Anna-Kaisa has adopted the tradition

of drinking English tea. She likes it! She has already changed her

regular mornig coffee to a morning black tea with milk. That's a good

sign! I think she will get on well living in England. Laurence prefers

PG tips tea for his morning tea, which is a traditional English brand.

For afternoon he likes to have Earl Grey. For afternoon and evening he

likes Whittard teas, which is also a traditional English company.

As a real Englishman Laurence added some milk into his tea – a habit

I never learned to like when I lived in London for couple of years! The

traditional English way of enjoying tea is to have it very strong (that's

black tea, of course) and add milk. The pot of tea Laurence now

ordered wasn't very strong so he admits that it could also have been

OK without milk. He thought his tea was very refreshing and light.

The interior of Café Aalto is also very light and simple, thought

Laurence. As both coffee and tea, with other beverages, are in offer,

Laurence and Anna-Kaisa both agreed that this place is better for

drinking tea. The café athmosphere is dignified and smart due to the

architecture and furniture desings, thought Anna-Kaisa. Laurence

noticed that the black real leather chairs are very heavy so that

creating an impression of an expensive environment which. 
The cute lamps above the tables warmly lit the area and produced 
a safe and intimate feeling. Due to the fact that the café is in a bookshop, 
both agreed that this place is ideal for reading! You could just buy a book 
and come here to read it while enjoying a cup of tea or coffee. 
Akateeminen kirjakauppa is one of my favorite places to just come 
to browse the books and be inspired.

While Laurence was having his cosy pot of black tea with milk, me

and Anna-Kaisa agreed that we had flown over to the other side of the

globe with the tastes of jasmine tea! We both had this image of a

garden and waterfall somewhere in China, maybe back in the time of

Song Dynasty where the jasmine tea originates. Only if that could

have been true! Nevertheless, this is a cheeper and faster way (and

probably the only one) of getting there... Though my choice of

cheesecake and Anna-Kaisa's Karelian pie was a confusing twist on a

way there. Laurence was happy with his choice of Karelian pie with

his black tea, he thought they matched very well. You could say too

that of a connection of English and Finnish relationship. Apparently

that works well, that's now been proved true!

In his freetime Laurence plays in a football team called FOBAFC

(Fitzwilliam Old Boys AFC). The football team is an old boys team by

old boys. People who use to go to same school or university in this

case in Fitzwilliam College in Cambridge, where most of the players

used to study. Laurence studied in Jesus College Cambridge. They

play in Richmond. Sometimes on the weeks Laurence plays also for

the team of his work.

Anna-Kaisa likes to run in parks, swim and just joined in a Finnish

baseball (pesäpallo) team 'Lontoon Pallo' based in Finnish Church in

London. Currently she is learning to know London and its' many treasures.
She enjoys to visit museums and recommends the exhibition of Gerhard Richter 
in Tate Modern which she enjoyed greatly.

Finally my guests gave their plea for a good cause, as I asked them to

do. Every guest of mine here will give a plea of his own choice to do

some good in world and make this a better and happier place for all of

us. At least I have promised to do good according my quests' pleases

and hope that the readers would be inspired to do so as well!

Both Laurence and Anna-Kaisa had their own personal pleases to

introduce. Laurence has a very committed custom to donate every

month to a two different charities. His donate will always go straight

from his salary. Due to his previous work for charities he noticed that

regular help is more important for them than larger donations one at

a time. Regularity donations will help the charities to plan better

financially. At the moment he is donating for breast cancer charity

and for charity for kids who were born deaf and blind and who are

dropped out of government's help.

Recycling is close to Anna-Kaisa's heart every day; taking care of

dividing the waste of papers, plastic, glass, metal etc. That's a

challenge for her as well because she lives now in England and the

recycling systems are different for what she used in Finland.

So, through Anna­Kaisa's and Laurence's pleases I have now

promised to recycle everyday and be careful what to throw away. Also

I have decided to give a monthly donation to 'Sydänlapset ja ­aikuiset

ry' – that's a trust for children and adults with inborn heart disease.

The trust's main aim is to protect all treatment for research and

opearations on people with inborn heart disease.

Our little tea time passed on nicely discussing football, badminton,

sport injuries, playing music, charity and of course tea. Then this

lovely couple had to hurry to their flight back home in London.