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?
