Meet Our Vendors: Yoka Miso
When Anna Sugiyama launched Yoka Miso in 2019, her traditionally made misos sold out within an hour of her site going live. She managed to sell out without a huge advertising campaign, press release, or viral social post. Anna’s business was supported by her community, and that strong connection to her community continues to be a driving force behind her business, “We support our community and then the people who want to do that also support us, so it’s this cycle of people just uplifting each other,” Anna says.
Miso is a fermented soybean paste that used to make miso soup, but can also be used in a variety of recipes, from soups to salad dressings, and even desserts. Anna makes a traditional miso using her father’s recipe that he learned from a miso-making class in Fukuoka, Japan. She also makes a garbanzo bean miso using the same techniques.
A strong, unique product also helped her business succeed from the beginning. Yoka Miso is the first Seattle-based miso company, and it also happens to be women-owned and family-operated. In a city like Seattle where local food and ingredients with a story hold a lot of value, Yoka Miso fit right in, while still being unique.
Each batch of miso takes 6-12 months to finish fermenting, which gave Anna a lot of time to think about how she wanted to run her business when she was first getting started. She spent a year focusing on packaging and her website before her first launch. As an English major, she understood the importance of a good story. You can read Yoka Miso’s origin story in Anna’s own words on the Yoka Miso website. “Being able to tell our story in a simple but holistic way was really beneficial,” she says.
Growing up with her father’s homemade miso, Anna has seen first-hand the versatility and practicality of high-quality miso. She believes that if more people understood how to use miso, it would easily become a household staple, especially for vegetarians and vegans because miso can provide a lot of umami and richness that can sometimes be missing when you remove meat from a dish.
As an avid backpacker and hiker, Anna also appreciates the benefits of good food while on an adventure. “Everything just tastes so much better when you're outside. It's just so magical to have really good food,” she says, talking about the magic of a warm cup of miso soup at a campfire after a long day of hiking. Since starting her business, she’s influenced her friends to start bringing thermoses of miso soup to their ski days and camping trips.
While Anna was able to sell out her first launch through word of mouth and sales to friends and family, her miso has only continued to grow in popularity. Today you can find Yoka Miso in some of the biggest restaurants in Seattle, including Canlis, The Whale Wins, Hello Robin, and more. Anna also has built connections with farmers market vendors like Wendy Simply Cooks and Salmonberry Goods. Though she doesn’t quite understand how it happened, Anna is incredibly grateful for her newfound community within the Seattle food scene. “We're all just people trying to support each other here and we have the same vision of what food can bring to a community,” she says.
You can try her miso for yourself at the University District Farmers Market, Saturdays from 9-2!