The Ika Chocolate sales team has been working hard these past few days. Many Tel Avivians bought chocolate and praline boxes for the Sept. 18 Jewish New Year. The shop was busy with customers up until the very last minute before closing for the holiday.

Chocolate shops in Jerusalem were equally busy this week. The newly opened Gustel Chocolate Boutique, located in downtown Jerusalem in the Mahne Yehuda market area and crammed between a grocery store and a tailor shop, has captured the attention of many. Named after a great-grandmother, Gustel offers connoisseurs Jerusalem-made fine chocolates, inspired by Parisian artisans. Not deterred by the coronavirus pandemic, Yaacov Elbert and his wife opened their high-end chocolate shop a month ago. The current nationwide lockdown has not been positive news for them, but they are hoping their business will survive.

"We believe that chocolate — apart from its extraordinary texture, taste and smell — is also a way of expressing sentiments, of caring and loving. And in these times of corona, when people are confined and not together, offering chocolate is offering encouragement, making happy or just relaying the message that someone is thinking of you," Elbert told Al-Monitor.

Elbert said that people bought more chocolate in the days before the New Year, and before the complete lockdown that started Sept. 25. "When we opened the shop, we also launched a site with a delivery service. Indeed, people have ordered our chocolates before the lockdown. I think they needed this treat in order to cope with the absurd situation they were forced into," he said.