Even if a visit to the Neue Kräme in Frankfurt is rather a depressing affair at the moment, since many areas are empty or are being renovated - one shop is bravely holding its own: the spice and tea house Schnorr.

The family business, founded in 1956 and managed by the third generation, Kai Schnorr, has been located here since 1978.

And spreads a good mood not only with its well-assorted range of teas, baking ingredients, spices and exotic rice mixes, even if the past two years have not been easy, as the boss admits.

"That was a challenge for us."

Petra Kirchhoff

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Schnorr belongs to the increasingly rare breed of shops where customers and salespeople often know each other.

City politics and the general world situation are also discussed.

The audience is a diverse group, including the homeless person who regularly buys his mints at the Neue Kräme, as well as the bank's CEO who wants his favorite pepper to be refilled.

Preserved much of the Schnorr tradition

Whoever enters the small shop, in which every inch of the shelf is occupied, encounters a sweet-smelling world and saleswomen who know which pepper goes with which dish or what distinguishes oolong tea from ordinary green tea.

The fact that there are always two consultants serving in the 45 square meter area is part of the shop philosophy of the young owner, who is driving the digitalization of the company, but at the same time wants to retain as much of the old Schnorr tradition as possible.

For this reason too, the shop fittings, which, as the grandson of the business founder remembers, were still all the rage in the 1970s, have not been shaken up too much.

"It would be a shame about the flair."

Many Frankfurters go to Schnorr because they have known the shop since they were children, when their grandmother had thick slices of marzipan cut off at the Neue Kräme every December and bought rose water, almonds, cocoa and other baking ingredients.

For many families, this is still a tradition in the weeks leading up to Christmas, says Kai Schnorr.

Above all, however, the shop is the place to go for passionate tea drinkers, who sometimes pay around 30 euros for a 50-gram portion of organic green tea from a Japanese family garden.

The revised online shop, which alone lists 36 types of pepper, shows just how broad the range is, from ordinary black pepper (4.25 euros in a 100-gram can) to an exclusive pepper from Tasmania (100 grams for 23.25 Euro).

What not everyone knows: Nuts, grains of rice, spices - a large part of the dry assortment is delivered loose in sacks and packed in bags and cans in rooms on Ziegelgasse near the Kleinmarkthalle or mixed together to form the well-known rice mixtures, which, when poured with boiling water, are quick meals.

The master of such mixtures comes from Sri Lanka and has been working for the company for 20 years.

He definitely wants to keep the manufactory character, says Schnorr, who regrets not being in the shop more often because he loves it so much.

Schnorr Spice and Tea House, Neue Krame 28, Frankfurt;

Monday to Saturday 9.30 a.m. to 6 p.m.;

www.teeshop.de