Jerusalem, Israel - Sept. 28, 2016 - Writer Chaim Potok is reported to have said, "Come, let us have some tea and continue to talk about happy things."

In Israel, tea drinking is seasonal. Nevertheless, erev Rosh Hashanna is the perfect season to talk about tea and happy things.  

After gourmet coffee, tea is becoming a new trend. Tea was always popular in the east, but now it is also becoming more popular in west. Teas have less caffeine than coffee. According to the Mayo Clinic, 8 ounces of brewed coffee contains 95-200 mg, while black tea has 14-70 mg, and green tea 24- 45 mg of caffeine.

Ceremonie Tea, based in Israel, was founded in 2007. In March 2013, Efrat and Elli Schorr took over ownership. Efrat told BJL, during a recent press tour of their factory and warehouse located in the Migdal HaEmek Industrial park, when they first arrived to see their new business venture "the warehouse was bare, there was nothing inside." Today the scene is very different.

Herbs come from Croatia, Nigeria, Poland, Paraguay and Bulgaria, lemon grass from Egypt, hibiscus form Germany, and black tea from India. New caffeine free rooibos leaves come from South Africa.

Imported raw materials are blended and packaged in the Israeli factory.  All printing done locally, however, the bags come from Argentina.

Centuries ago Eretz Yisrael was at the crossroads, at the heart of the ancient spice routes. Ceremonie Tea aims to bring the "modern crossroads of the ancient spice routes" and its culture of hospitality back in vogue.

A tour of the factory requires everyone who passes through to cover their hair and clothes. Ceremonie Tea strives for a clean and sanitary, quality product and is registered with the FDA. The tea company is also scrupulously careful with kashrus. Months before Pesach, even the bathroom hand soap is required to be kosher for Passover. The kosher symbol StarK from Baltimore was one of many spotted in the storeroom. All teas are under Badatz Edah Haredis, the OU, and the chief Rabbinate in Israel.  Even whole peppercorn packages are marked with a kosher symbol.  Production would be cheaper in Sri Lanka, but kosher supervision in Israel is much easier to accomplish and much more reliable.

"Orthodox" tea has nothing to do with being kosher, but is a technical term which refers to whole leaf tea leaves, as opposed to ground. For some it is almost a religion to brew tea leaves and not packets, much like serious coffee lovers who grind fresh coffee beans. For the less purist, Ceremonie produces various products using silk and paper pillow and pyramid-shaped individual serving bags, along with the whole leaf brews.

Complex machinery and silk mesh were imported from Japan. US oleh, Jason Rozen, Master Tea Blender, explained the special procedures and machines used in blending and packing specialty teas. He explained some interesting terminology, for example "gunpowder" tea is a shape, rolled-up tea leaves which look like little balls and open in hot water, not an explosive.  

Not only are the ingredients international. Ceremonie Tea employees are also diverse, with Arab workers from the village of Zarzir, two workers who are olim from India, and one who's family is from Khazakstan.  Others have families from Morocco, Iraq, Germany, Scotland, & France, plus, the olim from the United States.

Rozen serves customers and in doing so has made friends all over Israel, from the caterer at Beit Hanasi, to major hotels, including the Jerusalem Waldorf Astoria, and coffee shops in Ramallah. For Ramallah deliveries, Rozen has met clients outside on the road to exchange money and tea."With wads of cash, no interest issues arise," he adds. Of course, all deals are legal and recorded. For the Prime Minister's Office the tea is delivered to an army base, where packages are inspected and passed on. However, the hardest place to deliver, according to Rozen, is Ben Gurion Airport, where he has to go through layers of security inspections. 

One of many stories Rozen shared with BJL about his deliveries involved an adventure into an.Arab village.  After driving some time in "Kfar Kanna and feeling very lost, a big guy bangs on the car window." Rozen tells how he followed directions to get out of his car. Then, the Arab man gets into the car and "does the best 3-point turn I ever saw ever to get the car out of the tiny alleyway, and says good bye. That day Hashem was calling." Rozen concludes, "I was actually going to meet Hashem that day. A man by the name of Hashem - a Christian Arab in the village who runs a tourist shop!"  

When the security situation was especially difficult last year, office manager Aliza received a call from an Arab customer. "Are you ok?" he inquired after a terror attack was reported in news, and added, "We think it is terrible." 

Different cultures prefer different flavors, British like a strong tea, with milk and sugar added. Customer service is what a small company can offer. Besides the Waldorf Hotel, Elli Schorr tells how on erev Pesach he drove a delivery to the Ritz Hotel.

After a tasting session and a lesson on flavors, it was time to leave. Rooms piled high with raw materials from around the world and a warehouse filled with teas ready to ship around the world indicate how things have changed and grown since the first shocking day in the empty warehouse.

If you can sell tea to Taiwan, then you should be able to sell your tea anywhere, Besides customers in China and Italy, Canada and Australia, Israeli James Richardson duty free shops have stocked gift sets of Ceremonie Tea.

Recently the teas became available through SXS International which supplies to duty free and cruise ships throughout the Americas. And of course, you can always order the teas through Amazon.

Two new flavors were released in honor of Rosh Hashannah, Pomegranate Green Tea & Apple Cinnamon. The apple flavoring comes from Maryland.

Both Schorrs attended high school in Maryland, then went to Israel to study for their gap year. In 1995, the couple were married at Beth Tefilah Synagogue.  Later they obtained graduate degrees in Maryland, Elli at Georgetown Law and Efrat her Ph.D. at University of Maryland. They have been back in Israel for the last 11 years with their 5 children. 

Elli Schorr is son of Jacob and Julie Schorr of Silver Spring.

Fulll disclosure: Efrat Schorr is daughter of former Baltimorean Shimon  Altshul (TA 1967) and Sharon and cousin to BJL's Publisher.