Skoden Coffee & Tea combines traditional Native American cuisine with activism
Anna Ehrick Cronkite News
PHOENIX – For Indigenous small business owner Natasha John, the road to owning a coffee shop has been long. About 300 miles, in fact.
John first opened Skoden Coffee & Tea as a pop-up in Window Rock, the capital of the Navajo Nation, traveling to areas throughout the vast community in northeast Arizona.
When people suggested she should move the business 300 miles south to Phoenix, John recalled she doubted the idea.
'I was really against it because I thought I wanted to be like a food hub on the reservation because it's such a food desert,' John said. 'But I had the reassurance from my partner and colleagues that were helping me with pop-ups.'
When an opportunity came in December 2023 to move the enterprise to a vacant spot inside For The People, an uptown Phoenix furniture store on Central Avenue, she jumped at the chance.
'Fortunately, we had a lot of success with that first location,' she said. 'When business owners say location means everything, it really does.'
Skoden Coffee & Tea has now settled in its most recent home inside Central Records, a record store on Central Avenue south of Roosevelt Street. It's inspired by Japanese-style coffee shops referred to as 'kissa.'
That's a shortened version of 'kissaten,' roughly translated to 'tea drinking shop.' In Japan, a kissa is a spot where people can listen to music, usually jazz, while enjoying their tea.
At Skoden, a variety of beverages and pastries are inspired by Indigenous cuisine, with ingredients like blue corn and oat milk alongside coffees and espressos. Among the most popular offerings are the Diné Matcha Latte, Honey Lavender Lez Love, Peach and Pecan Latte as well as blue corn donuts and croissants.
For John and co-owner Jo Manuelito, it's important to include elements of nostalgia from growing up on the reservation.
This includes beverages that use Navajo tea, an ancient herbal tea using the dried leaves of Greenthread, also known as Thelesperma. The herb, with its thread-like leaves, contains anti-inflammatory elements, which is why the tea has been used for hundreds of years as tribal medicine.
'We do research into trying to restore a lot of things that were lost during colonization in our diets,' John said. 'One thing that a lot of Navajo people are trying to revive is the use of sumac. It's used in a lot of Middle Eastern communities, but our ancestors used to harvest it as well.'
The use of ancestral ingredients is what John believes will help the Navajo community not only nourish themselves but stay connected to their culture.
Being Indigenous and LGBTQ+, John said she recognizes some of the difficulties she has faced as a business owner.
'I feel like there's a lot of judgment and high expectations,' she said. 'People are constantly projecting onto us, always watching us and judging. This whole experience has taught me that we really need to grow thicker skin.'
John said they want all customers to feel safe and welcomed, and said it helps that the shop is surrounded by other supportive small businesses like Greater Good and Last Laugh Tattoo.
Skoden has a growing Instagram presence, with more than 15,000 followers. It hosts fundraising events for diverse communities and music festivals featuring small bands.
'Everybody does a good job of uplifting each other, and we get a lot of people in the area that come in and support local business owners,' John said. 'The shop can take credit for being a safe space where people can share the same values and ideas on social issues.'
Charlie Amáyá Scott, a Native American scholar and transgender advocate, has visited Skoden and said her favorite drink is the Navajo lavender-infused honey tea.
'I adore Skoden Coffee,' said Scott, who also works as a social media influencer.
She has taken to Instagram to support the shop, encouraging others who live near the area to check it out. She also has spoken out about the shop's role in activism and support of certain movements like Bears Ears, which involves a coalition of five Indigenous communities who want to protect the Bears Ears National Monument.
John said she wants customers to leave Skoden feeling supported and renewed.
'We have to remind each other what we're doing this for and go back to those values of why we started this business,' she said. 'For us, it's not about making money but trying to create change through serving coffee and providing a space where people can just heal.'
For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.
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