[Avodah] What beracha does one recite on coffee and tea?

[Prof. L. Levine]

>From today's OU Kosher Halacha Yomis


Q. What beracha does one recite on coffee and tea?

A. This is a complex question, as it is touches on a number of principals that emerge from halachic discussions about the brachos for vegetable soup, fruit soup and beer. Important responsa on this topic were composed about 300 years ago by some of the great poskim of the eighteenth century. One of the first recorded teshuvos on this topic is found in Perach Mateh Aharon (siman 40), who ruled that the appropriate beracha is shehakol. Rav Meir Eizenshtat zt”l (1670-1744) disagrees. He writes in Panim Me’iros (2:190) that borei pri ha’adomah would be more appropriate, given that tea and coffee are grown specifically for use as beverages. Indeed, Rav Meir notes that when visiting the city of Worms Germany, he observed the great chasid, Rav Shmuel Shatin, reciting borei pri ha’adomah on a cup of tea. Rav Meir challenged Rav Shmuel that it is customary to recite a shehakol. Rav Shmuel responded that a minhag that was not established by Rabbonim has no validity. Nonetheless, the Panim Me’eiros concludes a long teshuva by saying that while in theory he sides with Rav Shmuel, but in practice, he does not wish to break with common practice and recites shehakol. Subsequent poskim have defended the custom to recite a shehakol on coffee and tea with various explanations, and that is almost universally accepted.


YL

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