In our podcasts, we love to introduce inspiring stories of people who – just like us – pay attention to details, care about the quality of ingredients, and about the footprint they leave in nature. This way, we show our customers products worth including in everyday life, whether it’s meat, cheese, teas, herbs, or other products with real added value.
In this episode, we take you to the heart of Čejkovice, where we visited Sonnentor, a family business that has been producing quality teas for over 30 years and gradually expanding its assortment – from organic spices and spice blends to coffee and organic syrups.
We talked with the owner, Josef Dvořáček, about the tradition of tea drinking passed down to us in the Czech Republic by our grandmothers, about sustainability, and about how to build a company that can still preserve its values today and pass them on.
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Podcast transcript:
[00:00:04]
In our podcasts, we love to introduce inspiring stories of people who – just like us – pay attention to details, care about the quality of ingredients, and about the footprint they leave in nature. This way, we show our customers products worth including in everyday life, whether it’s meat, cheese, teas, herbs, or other products with real added value.
In this episode, we take you to the heart of Čejkovice, where we visited Sonnentor, a family business that has been producing quality teas for over 30 years and gradually expanding its assortment – from organic spices and spice blends to coffee and organic syrups. We talked with the owner, Josef Dvořáček, about the tradition of tea drinking passed down to us by our grandmothers, about sustainability, and about how to build a company that can still preserve its values today and pass them on.
00:00:10 Michal Kočí
Good day, today we left the studio and went to Čejkovice, to Sonnentor, and I’m sitting across from Mr. Dvořáček, who is the owner of Sonnentor. Good day.
00:00:19 Josef Dvořáček
Good day.
00:00:21 Michal Kočí
To start, could I ask you for a presentation of Sonnentor for those who might not know you? What exactly do you do?
00:00:27 Josef Dvořáček
Well, the idea of Sonnentor was born in 1988 in northern Austria. The idea of founding a company that buys herbs from local organic farmers came from Johannes Gutmann, who started operating in that region, gradually packing the herbs into bags, creating products with a nice label and the smiling sun logo.
Later, the idea was picked up here in the Czech Republic by Tomáš Mitáček, and in 1992 they founded the Czech Sonnentor together. I joined a bit later. But we are not a typical mother–daughter branch of a foreign company – all profits and money we earn here in the Czech Republic stay here and can be reinvested. At the same time, we benefit from access to foreign markets, we can export our products, and we try to spread the idea that we buy herbs and spices from local organic farmers, pack them, and sell them as finished products – either spices, or portioned or loose teas. Over time, we added a few more products – today we have our own coffee project, we roast our own coffee, we make organic syrups sweetened with apple concentrate and infused with our herbs, and a few other complementary items. Step by step, we’ve been developing, and in the 33 years we’ve been based in Čejkovice, we’ve been striving to make sure that the idea of sustainability, starting from high-quality organic raw materials, runs through our entire business. That means thinking about where we operate – our headquarters are in a renovated old cowshed, a brownfield site – our entire company, headquarters and production, is here in Čejkovice on the hill. We also think about energy – we use heat pumps, strive for passive buildings, minimize energy use, and so on – and we think about what we pack our products in, making sure packaging is compostable or recyclable and ideally plastic-free, so as not to burden the environment.
00:03:15 Michal Kočí
And the tea bags – what is the difference compared to the ones people normally find in the supermarket? Because there is definitely an effect on health, and of course also on the environment.
00:03:24 Josef Dvořáček
So, when we talk about portioned teas, about the infusion bag, we thought a lot about how to minimize packaging. We considered whether each individual tea bag really needed to be wrapped in another paper envelope. But when we ran tests, we found that when the consumer opens the box and the individual bag is not sealed in another wrapper, the aromas evaporate significantly, and the quality of the tea deteriorates. For that reason, we decided that even though it produces a bit more packaging, it is worth it to wrap each individual tea bag separately, hermetically seal it, so that the aroma from the organic raw material is preserved. And when we ran tests, even after two or three years the bag still retained its aroma and was of very high quality. Another aspect is that today we use special filter papers that are unbleached and not chlorinated, because bleached and chlorinated papers can release chlorine into the tea in hot water and alter the taste. We also thought about making sure that after brewing, the user can throw the bag straight into a home compost. That means no metal or aluminum staple, as is still common with some older machines. We made sure the bag is stitched only with thread. No staples that make composting impossible, and of course it’s not desirable for aluminum to leach into the hot water. These are the basic principles of a quality portioned tea – how to pack it properly.
00:06:15 Michal Kočí
I think this is also a bit more costly compared to what large multinational corporations produce. It’s a kind of guarantee that customers are paying extra for. Do you have a problem with pricing, or do customers accept and understand what they are buying?
00:06:33 Josef Dvořáček
So, the biggest price difference, if we compare the cheapest supermarket tea to ours, is really in the raw material. The cost of organic raw material is two to five times higher than conventional raw material. And I have to say that today, most tea companies that produce herbal or fruit teas work a lot with flavorings. They create taste using special aromas – basically chemical compounds designed to give that blueberry, strawberry, or raspberry flavor. That way the tea is very cheap, but of course it has nothing to do with the true taste of fruit.
00:08:01 Michal Kočí
Was this philosophy of uncompromising quality there from the very beginning, or did it crystallize over time as you discovered the pitfalls of convention?
00:08:12 Josef Dvořáček
No, from the very beginning we said: It makes sense for us only if we can guarantee 100% what we pack – something we could give to our children and grandchildren. Any tea coming off our machine must be something we stand by. So it was unthinkable for us to have fields where our herbs grow treated with herbicides and pesticides, which burden the environment and seep into groundwater, and so on. We wanted herbs harvested with love, without chemicals, in traditional ways. Today we may use robotic weeders with AI that distinguish herbs from weeds – very advanced tools – but the point is to avoid chemicals. It’s not just the old-fashioned hoe, but still, when it comes to using chemicals for disease, pest, or weed control, we are completely uncompromising – for us, it is crucial to source only certified organic herbs. … I believe every circle of consumers finds its own. Of course, we also meet people who visit our center and say: it’s beautiful here, but Mr. Dvořáček, you’re a thief, selling teas for 95–100 CZK, how can a normal person afford that? It’s really about perspective. I’d compare it to wine: some winemakers say people complain about a 150 CZK bottle when you can get boxed wine in Lidl for 30. It’s the same with tea – supermarket tea for 20 CZK versus ours, which is on a completely different level of quality. If customers value low herbicide and pesticide content, it’s for them; if they only care about price, it’s not. That’s the reality in food: compared to Western markets, Czechs spend less of their income on food – more on cars, housing. Italians, for example, don’t need much explanation about price. And I also see that the younger generation is increasingly interested in a healthy lifestyle and the health of the planet. They care about what fuels their body, what they eat, how companies behave toward the environment. That matters much more to them than to someone who says, ‘In 10 or 20 years I won’t be here, so why should I care?’
00:28:03 Michal Kočí
When you were showing us around the building, you pointed out something very important – the water here in the area of Čejkovice. Could you explain again how it is that the local well water is at infant water level, especially since in another recent podcast with Mr. Pohlman we heard that the general quality of well water is catastrophic?
00:28:36 Josef Dvořáček
In Čejkovice, there are a lot of vineyards, and honestly, the wine-growing regions are among the worst in terms of herbicide and pesticide use, because vineyards are sprayed very often. Most of them are farmed conventionally, with frequent spraying, and since spraying happens on tall plants, the chemicals can drift hundreds of meters with the slightest wind. As a result, groundwater in wine regions is often contaminated. But near Čejkovice, in Velké Hostěrádky, we worked with an eco-farm called ProBio. ProBio has been farming organically for around 15 years now, without sprays, managing about 400 hectares, and gradually neighboring farmers joined them. They saw it was possible to farm organically even on a large scale, with crops like spelt, buckwheat, wheat, rye, barley, potatoes, using crop rotation. Eventually, more and more joined, and today the “Bio region Hostěrádky” covers almost 3,000 hectares, all farmed organically, without chemicals. I remember one meeting about organic farming, sitting by one of our herb fields. A young couple with small kids walked by. The woman happily greeted me and said: “It’s wonderful how you farm here, thank you so much. We love taking photos by your colorful herb fields. But most importantly, when our children were born, we had our well water tested – and after 30 years, we have infant-quality water in our wells again.” That moment made me realize this is something we never planned, never had in our strategies – but organic farming has far-reaching impacts, like improving groundwater quality. And it would be beautiful if there were more villages like that, where people could drink infant-quality water from their wells.
00:31:25 Michal Kočí
Why do you think it is that some people – like you – try to do things as best as possible, while others see animals suffering, fields being sprayed, and simply don’t care? I imagine you’ve had this discussion many times. How do you view the fact that for some people, it’s just about profit?
00:31:58 Josef Dvořáček
I think a big part of it is that we humans have disconnected from nature. We don’t spend much time in it and no longer feel like we are part of it. My father was a fruit grower. He taught me to graft old fruit trees, to beekeep. So even though I strayed from the ecological path at times, I always carried within me that basic love for nature. I also noticed that people who love nature usually also love other people – they tend to be kind and well-liked. Many of the scouts I met, for example, were wonderful, fair people shaped by time spent in nature. That upbringing instills a lifelong love for the environment. On the other hand, many people are completely disconnected. And today we see the consequences in the climate crisis: industries forgetting that we can’t dump everything into rivers, because rivers are living organisms. We can’t just release everything into the air, because it all comes back to us – through diseases, through environmental damage. We are part of nature, and it’s a balanced system. We cannot look at it selfishly, just to make short-term profit. We need to realize we are part of nature, and we must respect it.
00:35:15 Michal Kočí
That’s interesting. I read on your LinkedIn a few months back that it’s been 10 years since you almost boarded a plane that crashed. Did that experience affect you?
00:35:29 Josef Dvořáček
Yes, absolutely. This year it was ten years. If I may share the story for the listeners… My wife and I have three kids, and we had this tradition of occasionally spending a weekend with just one child at a time, since in a group, kids behave differently and you don’t get that one-on-one connection. My son was a huge FC Barcelona fan, so I planned a trip for us to see Barcelona play Real Madrid in March 2015, combined with a visit to a nearby organic farm in Spain. We wanted to make it a special weekend. At the very last minute, we canceled – thanks to my wife. I was upset at the time. I still remember watching the match at home on Sunday night – Barcelona won 2:1 – and my son and I were both disappointed not to be there. But that Thursday, I was clearing emails and realized that my son and I had tickets for the Germanwings flight that a mentally ill pilot deliberately crashed into the French Alps. No one survived. I realized that Sunday night I was angry at my wife – and by Thursday, I understood we had basically been reborn. When you go through something so profound, you start thinking differently: what would I do, how would I live or work if I knew tomorrow I might die? Suddenly, business size, money earned, charity donations, being in Forbes – none of that matters. What matters are relationships with loved ones, and the imprint you leave here. That experience taught me that life is short, every day is a gift, and we have a responsibility to treat others and the world in a way that makes it a little better.
00:39:05 Michal Kočí
That’s quite a story. Maybe it even left a mark on this building we’re sitting in. Could you tell listeners what to expect if they come for a tour? This building is one of the most ecological in the country, am I right?
00:39:35 Josef Dvořáček
Around 2016–2017 we realized our Sonnentor site was getting too tight. We had built it on a brownfield – an old, dilapidated cowshed – and by 2012 had opened it up as a visitor center, the “Herbal Paradise,” so tourists could come see how tea is made. There was a lot of demand, so we wanted to make tours safer and more professional – to keep visitors out of the warehouse with forklifts, for example. Together with architects, production and logistics colleagues, we started designing a building that would meet the strictest sustainability and ecology criteria. This became our Solis building – “sun” – which in 2022 won the award for the most sustainable industrial building in Central Europe. Thanks to that, we also got a favorable loan, etc. We’re proud of it: it behaves almost like a passive building, uses minimal energy, has heat pumps, clay plaster, recycled partitions – all sustainable materials. Production was also streamlined, with shorter routes from herb cutting to packaging, preserving aroma better. And we built a special tunnel with a tourist route, so visitors can literally walk through and see how teas are made. This transparency keeps us disciplined – everything must be clean and neat, because visitors see it all. Unlike many food companies that stay closed, we opened up, and that makes us better. Visitors appreciate it and many become long-term customers after seeing the difference firsthand.
00:42:45 Michal Kočí
I have to recommend it. I saw some photos before coming and thought it looked nice, but didn’t realize how big it is. The whole exhibition is worth it. How many people visit you in Čejkovice?
00:43:09 Josef Dvořáček
We were really surprised. Last year, about 80,000 visitors came. So in a way, we compete with professional tourist destinations. We employ around 25 people full-time in tourism, plus seasonal staff for the café, shop, and family programs. It also helps us market our brand without relying on supermarket private labels. Instead, we can support quality Czech farmers and herb growers, keep our standards high, and avoid compromising by buying lower-grade herbs just to satisfy a retail chain.
00:45:10 Michal Kočí
In the health and wellness sector, some companies do things well but aren’t always successful financially. You, however, are successful and employ many people. You’re strong abroad too – which is rare. In which country are you strongest, and why do you think customers abroad are interested in your products?
00:45:45 Josef Dvořáček
Over 33 years, we’ve built a very strong position in the organic segment abroad. Today Sonnentor is among the top 3–4 most important brands in Europe. Because we never delivered to multinationals, we became highly sought after by specialized organic shops and markets (200–300 m² stores that sell only organic goods). So we now distribute across the EU. Our turnover is about 480 million CZK, and we’ll likely cross half a billion this year. Half of that is sold in the Czech Republic, half is exported – mainly to German-speaking countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, northern Italy. Their cuisines and traditions are similar to ours – the teas and herbs their grandmothers used are like ours. In Poland or the UK, people drink less herbal tea, influenced by black and green tea culture, so we’re less successful there. But in German-speaking countries we are one of the top two brands in teas and spices.
00:47:10 Michal Kočí
That’s great. I often feel that brands or people who do things well say they’re not doing so well financially because they insist on quality. I don’t think those are mutually exclusive — you seem to prove that. What’s your take? Of course sometimes you have to step back economically to preserve quality, that’s clear, but to me it’s not a contradiction. Or is it?
00:47:40 Josef Dvořáček
I have to say we were a bit lucky — we have an Austrian partner, and access to the Austrian–German market was therefore easier. In the Czech Republic, a huge share of food is sold only through multinational chains. So even quality Czech bio companies tell me, “Josef, we have to sell to the chains — we bought a machine to mill or pack properly, and now we need volume.” But selling to chains is a vicious circle — they push you on price, and often don’t really care about quality; a certification ‘stamp’ is enough. I often see, in our line of work, that the herbs in those supermarket bio private labels can be 6–8 years old — nothing like our fresh herbs.
00:49:25 Michal Kočí
I think most farmers we meet would agree: either you build your own sales channels, or the chains will eat you alive.
00:49:35 Josef Dvořáček
It’s also about patience. If you come to Sonnentor today, you see a company we’ve built step by step over 33 years, reinvesting every crown back in. Then a young guy comes along and says after three years, “It’s too hard, we have to go to the chains.” We sell a lot to small shops, we have a field sales team, and we can pick and pack orders of just 3,000 CZK. But looking at the whole, no single customer accounts for more than 5% of our turnover. That diversification is crucial so that no one can hold us by the throat — nobody can say “we’re 50% of your business and we’re leaving,” and leave us with idle machines and purchased herbs we can’t move.
00:51:00 Michal Kočí
If a customer wants to find you, where can they buy your products? Do you have a map of small shops on your website, or is it mainly via your e-shop?
00:51:20 Josef Dvořáček
Today we sell through our own channels: our visitor center “Herbal Paradise” in Čejkovice with a large shop and an experience tour, where people can buy seedlings and do tastings; we have a tasting café and a tea room — exactly the kind of excellence I’d like to replicate in big cities, but shop rents in the Czech Republic are very high. So we run our own stores — in Brno and Prague — we’re preparing to open in Olomouc, and we’d like to expand gradually by two or three stores per year. Then we have our e-shop — customers pick what they want and receive it within two days. We also have a network of so-called partner shops — stores with a Sonnentor shop-in-shop, beautiful graphics; we supply products and know-how and train their staff (they come to Čejkovice for tours and tastings). There are about a hundred of these partner stores, plus a network of health-food and bio shops — very important channels. And then the gift segment — bookstores, garden centers, gift shops. We try to make our labels nice, playful, cheerful, well-described. Instead of “tea for colds,” it’s “Dumpling in the Throat.” We want emotion — not just another “tea for the bronchi or the prostate.” For kids’ runny noses it’s “Usmrkánek,” for colds it’s “Kuc kuc,” and then we have “Good Mood,” “Guardian Angel,” “Family Harmony.” People like that the tea carries an emotion — and they’re surprised that inside the gift there’s something they didn’t expect: a fantastic tea. They give us great feedback — many become regular customers.
00:53:00 Michal Kočí
I’ll give you feedback on Nerve Balm. Sometimes when things pile up, I think: I need that today.
00:53:08 Josef Dvořáček
Yes, it belongs among our best-selling teas. Here in the Czech Republic, actually — so maybe it’s a catchy name, or maybe our nerves really need it.
00:53:12 Michal Kočí
Especially in winter, when there’s not much sun. Nice. How many products do you have, by the way?
00:53:17 Josef Dvořáček
We have over 600 products in total — primarily spice blends; herbal, black, fruit, green, and rooibos teas; kids’ teas; portioned and loose — and many other products containing our herbs or spices. We have vegetable bouillons for soups; organic syrups sweetened only with apple juice — unrefined sugar — which are very popular and infused with our herbs. We also have our own coffee projects in Nicaragua and Peru, so we have a coffee line as well. There are lots of products, but about 200 are the real best-sellers. You can buy those across Europe in specialized bio stores, which makes me very happy. A friend of mine was at a world fair in Japan, then went to Okinawa and sent me photos of our teas with Japanese labels — that made my day. We sell just a little there — maybe 20–30 thousand euros — more of a cherry on top, but it’s nice that we’re “teaching” the Japanese to drink herbal teas, even though Japan is the mecca of tea — mostly green teas.
00:54:15 Michal Kočí
And you have labels translated into 55 languages?
00:54:17 Josef Dvořáček
Yes. You’ll find labels in Hebrew (we deliver to Israel), Japan, New Zealand, Australia, various Asian countries, certainly the United States, and then all European countries.
00:54:50 Michal Kočí
That’s wonderful. Mr. Dvořáček, thank you very much for taking the time. Our listeners often ask us where to buy good cheese and so on, and I can say that in our office pretty much everyone has some of your tea in their drawer — so we can vouch for it and recommend it. Thank you for what you do, and I hope you’ll find time for us again — maybe we’ll record another episode about teas, spices, and the like.
00:55:08 Josef Dvořáček
Thank you for the visit — and if you’re interested, come see our visitor center in Čejkovice near Hodonín; you’ll learn how to recognize a good tea.
00:55:16 Michal Kočí
Highly recommended — I’m off to shop. Take care. Goodbye.
00:55:18 Josef Dvořáček
Goodbye.
