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On the 5th of May — Freedom Day — we gathered at the Van Eesteren Museum in Nieuw-West for a workshop that honoured flavour, memory, and exchange.
The workshop unfolded in two parts. We began with spiced tea. We curated a selection of whole spices, grouped by flavour profile — earthy, floral, sweet, warming. We opened each of our four sessions with a conversation on spice: its beauty, its power, and the role it has played and continues to play in shaping our global landscapes and freedoms. Guests then created their own blends — cradling rooibos, oolong, and Rwandan Rukeri teas from Amsterdam Teas, layering them with the spices that spoke to them. The table filled with scent and steam and stories. Children as young as four sat beside elders, all crafting personal infusions that carried a bit of themselves in every cup.
The second half of the workshop turned to dorayaki — soft, golden pancakes traditionally filled with anko. But here, they became a gesture of hospitality. Each guest made dorayaki for their table neighbour. First, they asked: What flavours do you love? Then, they proceeded to fill them with a variety of Goja-made spiced fillings. We of course had anko, as well as spiced rose-pistachio, speculoos caramel, poached apple, and various spiced nuts. What emerged was more than a dessert. It was a quiet celebration of trust, generosity, and the small joy of being asked: What would make this sweet for you?
We invited guests to slow down and embrace sweetness, texture, memory, and community. Our high tea was a quiet celebration of comfort, seasonality, and collaboration — served on handcrafted yakisugi-textured trays made especially for us by artists Suraya and Julius of the collective Shapeshifters and Spacebenders. Each wooden plate held four small desserts, each telling its own story.
Dorayaki, plush and golden, filled with house-made anko and crowned with a strawberry — a fleeting nod to early spring’s twinkling splendour. Hōjicha jelly, softly set and laced with fresh ginger, finished with a spoonful of ginger–pear syrup: translucent, warming, and glinting with slices of poached pear and root.
Milk tart, a South African classic, reimagined in the Goja kitchen. The milk was steeped in citrus and spice, then dusted with finely ground cardamom. Candied walnuts, lacquered in dark caramel folded with our mother-in-law masala — a spice blend as fierce as it is nostalgic, crackling through the sweetness with complexity and heat.
Two single-origin teas were chosen in collaboration with Geoff, the brilliant founder of Amsterdam Teas: Bai Mu Dan, a Chinese white tea from Yunnan, and Rwandan Rukeri, a black tea from Kinihira. Selected to complement the sweets, they were poured into Hagiyaki vessels — soft-glazed Japanese ceramics from the town of Hagi, known for their warmth, porosity, and gentle ageing. These were provided by Tanaka-san from Tanaka-NL, a collector and steward of Japanese ceramic heritage based in Amsterdam. Each guest held a different cup, no two alike, turning every serving into a unique and personal encounter.
Our pre-launch event was hosted at a creative studio. We explored Japanese, South African and Indian flavours. Between dishes we served two different nut blends, a spicy nut blend as well as a spiced-coconut spice blend.
For our starter we curated a dish inspired by Indian pani puri and Japanese sweet bean paste. The dish provided a sensory experience with the crunchy pani puri shells, spicy red bean paste and a cooling sauce drizzled with pomegranates and spice.
Our main course, a fusion karaage, reimagined the Japanese classic with the traditional tastes being fused with a warming Indian taste. The karaage was served with two sauces, a south african inspired spiced-fruity mayo as well as a Japanese inspired wasabi sauce. This was served with our in-house tea salad.
For dessert, we offered dorayaki with a twist—three variations that brought together flavours from South Africa and Japan. An apricot chutney dorayaki, a unique Japanese boozy raisin and peanut dorayaki as well as a traditional matcha. All dorayaki were served with a homemade Japanese sweet red bean paste.
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