Lizzy's Corner

This month we’re showcasing black tea. Like other true teas, black teas are made from leaves of the camellia sinensis plant. The difference between black teas and other types of teas is that the leaves have been withered, rolled, oxidized and fired in an oven. During this process, the color of the leaves turns from green to brown and black, and various of flavors are created. The Chinese have produced green tea for thousands of years, while black tea is a relatively new tea. There is evidence that the Chinese first made black tea in the 1700s in the Wuyi...

A common questions in the shop is: do we have a traditional English Breakfast tea? As with most tea subjects, the answer is not a simple "yes" or "no." Here's what we learned while researching the interesting history of breakfast tea blends. In the 1700s all black tea in Britain was imported from China. Tea was expensive and only the upper class could afford it. Over time, the price came down and people switched from ale to tea with their breakfast. Breakfast teas were simple black teas for middle-class consumers to begin their day. Originally these breakfast teas consisted of Chinese...

At the base of the Himalayas, the Darjeeling district is located in the West Bengal state of India in the northeast corner of the country. Darjeeling has only produced tea since the 1830s. While trying to grow tea in India, the British discovered the native Chinese tea bush (camellia sinesis sinesis) grew well in Darjeeling's high elevation (the average elevation is 7,000 feet). The British plantations marketed tea from that era as the Champagne of teas, even though the steeped tea was heavy, dark and brisk. In the 1960s Indian processors began to experiment with producing a lighter Darjeeling tea....

First the good news: you can enjoy the 2020 Dragonwell green tea and many other Chinese teas at home or as to-go drinks in the shop. We're also well stocked on Japanese teas including the popular Sencha Fukamushi and matcha varieties. And you can choose from a full menu of summer teas and herbal blends.We've also been busy sourcing new and unusual blends for you from Black owned tea companies in the Pacific Northwest. The first one to debut is Peachy Thyme, a fruity herbal blend with notes of peaches, thyme and jasmine on a base of green rooibos. This...

What is it? The LizzyKate Card program provides you a contact-less way to pay for your drink(s) when placing drink orders. How does it work? First, you need to log in… Go to https://app.lizzykate.com in a modern browser on your computer, laptop, tablet or phone. If you have a Drink Rewards account (perhaps set up by us in the shop) but don’t have a login or don’t remember it, just put in your email address and hit “Sign in”. This will produce an unsuccessful login prompt, but it will also produce the “Reset Password” link. Click on that, re-verify your...

We hope you are staying healthy and enjoying tea during these tough times. Today we're launching a campaign to provide tea to local healthcare heroes. We hope you, our tea community, will partner with us in this project. For every $10 donation, LizzyKate will provide two healthcare workers each with a 1-oz package of tea and paper tea bags to make 8 of cups of tea. Donate here. The back story: recently, our neighbor who is an ER doctor ordered large amounts of tea on lizzykate.com.  She promised she wasn't hoarding the tea but rather giving it to her ER...

Thank you to everyone who has continued to support LizzyKate and our team during these uncertain times.With a heavy heart, we have decided to temporarily close the Kirkland storefront during the Governor's Stay-at-Home order from Thurs. March 26 through Wed. April 8. While many of us believe tea is essential, we also believe it is our responsibility to you, our team and the community to flatten the curve as much as possible.As always, you can order loose leaf tea and teaware online. We are continuing to stock as much of our teas and teaware as possible. Some vendors have notified us...

Starting today, our shop hours will be 9-6 every day. This means we will close earlier on Friday and Saturday and be open later on Sunday.All drinks are takeout only. If other customers are ordering and paying for drinks, please stand back until they finish.If you're in our Rewards system, you can also order a drink at app.lizzykate.com in a browser. You'll need to set up a password if you haven’t used it before. Enter your email, click Sign-in and you'll be prompted to set up a password.After you place the order, we’ll have the drink waiting for you. You’ll still need to pay...

Starting today, all drinks are takeout only. You can order in the shop but won't be able to sit in the shop to drink it. We are open our regular hours of 10-6.If you're in our Rewards system, you can also order a drink at app.lizzykate.com in a browser. You'll need to set up a password if you haven’t used it before. Enter your email, click Sign-in and you'll be prompted to set up a password.After you place the order, we’ll have it waiting for you. You’ll still need to pay in the shop with your credit card. Starting today we’re no longer accepting...

As you know the coronavirus situation is evolving every day. At the shop we are making these changes in addition to the ones announced in the last post:- all drinks will be served in paper to-go cups (no glass mugs or teapots and no traditional steeps)- 15% tip will be added to food and drink orders unless you tell us otherwise (this is to avoid you and our team both touching the iPad during a transaction)- we strongly encourage credit card payments (we will only accept credit cards starting 3/16)Later today there will be guidance from the local health department...

Dear LizzyKate customers,Like many of you, we are concerned about the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak in King County and elsewhere in the US and abroad. We want to let you know about the regular and extra precautions we are taking at the shop: every morning and evening we sanitize all tables, chairs, tea bar, counter tops, scale buttons, and handles on equipment, sinks and doors during the day we sanitize the tables, chairs and tea bar between customers all dishes are sanitized in our commercial dishwasher and we are doing a double sanitizing on mugs during the outbreak we wear gloves...

Friends and customers often ask us for a tea recommendation to help them feel better when they're sick with a cold. In our opinion, any warm tea is soothing to your throat, especially with a little honey added! Here are some blends you can purchase in the shop and online which we recommend for colds (note that Moroccan Mint is the only one with "true tea" in it, while the others are non-tea herbals). Citrus Sunset: this wellness blend includes bits of apples, oranges and carrot pieces as well as eucalyptus leaves which may bring relief as you're drinking it and...