Lizzy's Corner

The Super Bowl is almost here! As loyal Seahawks fans, the LizzyKate Team will be drinking hot green tea and cold brewed blue-berry tea. We plan to start our day with Sencha Asamushi green tea. There's caffeine in it to jumpstart the day and also the amino acid L-theanine which is a brain calmer and helps you avoid the type of crash coffee can give you. The night before the big game we'll cold brew two 2-quart pitchers of Blueberry Fields tea. For each 2-quart pitcher, add 6-8 heaping teaspoons of the loose leaf tea to a paper Tea Filter...

We've had a busy holiday weekend with visitors from Minnesota, tea tasting and a very exciting football game. My cousin and her husband are visiting Seattle for the first time together, and in addition to taking in the usual Seattle sights (Pike Place Market, Pioneer Square, Snoqualmie Falls, plus many more), they've been sampling and learning a lot about tea. They had their first formal introduction to tea at the "Experience Green Teas" class at the Experience Tea store in Issaquah. The owner, Roberta, explained how all true tea comes from the same tea plant (camellia sinensis) and that green...

Are you a fan of Downton Abbey and looking forward to the start of Season 5 on Sunday night? We are and in honor of the occasion, we're hosting a Downton Abbey tea contest on our Facebook page! Before 6 pm PST on Sunday, 1/4/15, post your guess as to how many times tea will be served to members of the Crawley family upstairs or at a relative or friend's house ("times" means each formal teatime, not the pouring of tea to individual people). We re-watched the last episode of Season 4 and counted 5 times, the majority with a tall silver...

Happy 2015! Thank you to our family, friends and fans for your support in 2014. It takes a village to launch a start-up! I spent my last morning of 2014 taking a Tea and Chocolate Pairing class at Experience Tea Studio. This was the first tea class for my teenage daughter, and we went with another mom and her teenage daughter. The studio owner and instructor chose five teas (white peony, Chinese green tea, Taiwanese oolong, Chinese black and Yerba Mate) to pair with five chocolates (white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate 70%, mint dark chocolate, and dark chocolate with crystallized ginger)....

Happy Winter Break to everyone with school aged kids! If you've run out of time for ordering items to be shipped and prefer to shop from the comfort of your home, we have two great gift ideas for you: $20/mo Tea of the Month Club: starting in January, your gift recipient will receive three specially selected teas. The 1 oz size of each tea makes 10 8-oz cups for a total of 30 cups per month. Plus we'll include a free gift, the LizzyKate Tea Infuser with 2 Handles ($5.20 value), in the January package (new subscribers only). You have...

Last week we hosted our launch party and invited over a bunch of family and friends to help us celebrate. Of course, we had a number of different teas for people to try and they all seemed to enjoy them.  We also had three different cocktails that we put out and many folks asked for the recipes. Here they are:   Blueberry Bomb Equal parts Grand Marnier and Amaretto Add approximately a 5-to1 ratio (mix to your taste) of cold brewed Blueberry Fields Add a generous splash of grenadine Add a less generous splash of Rose's Lime Juice Arnie's Slice Gin...

December is flying by. So far this month we've celebrated the one month anniversary of our LizzKate's online store, shipped your orders all over the US, mailed the December Tea of the Month teas and hosted a 'Teas the Season holiday party. Is it January yet?! Based on informal feedback from the party, some of the favorite teas were White Christmas, Decaf Hot Cinnamon Spice, Kenilworth Ceylon, and Mango Green! The tea cocktails were also well received and we'll be posting those recipes soon. Here's the recipe for the very popular Peppermint Bars which many people requested. Ingredients3 cups flour1 teaspoon baking soda½ teaspoon salt1½ cup...

Happy Cyber Monday Sale! Remember when you saved your Internet shopping for the Monday after Thanksgiving because the connection at work was faster than home? Even though most of us can now shop at home from any number of devices, we still think it's a great excuse for a sale. Between now and Monday, Dec. 1 at midnight, save 10% on all items at LizzyKate.com with the discount code: CYBERMONDAY This week we're featuring a new item on our site: 3 Tea Gift Set. These sets make great holiday gifts, hostess gifts and gifts for your co-workers or clients. Featuring about 1 ounce each of three of our most popular teas, packaged...

OK, I have to admit I never thought about serving tea at Thanksgiving until this year. But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Black tea and oolong go well with appetizers, and fruit teas and herbal infusions pair well with dessert. Plus tea is a great option for teenagers, designated drivers and those who don't drink alcohol. You can cold brew some tea the night before for those who prefer cold beverages but don't want the calories of soda and thirst for something with flavor. Here are some tea recommendations divided by caffeine and non caffeine. Teas with...

In the last week, we offered to a select "beta" test group the chance to get a "two-fer" if they signed up for one of our Tea Clubs.  Those pioneering folks got an "Early-Bird Bonus" mailing of these teas: Almond-Orange Sencha, Hot Cinnamon Spice, and White Peach.  We're really excited to hear their feedback.  We also included a Clear Measuring Teaspoon as an additional thanks! We're pleased that we already have a number of folks signed up for the Tea Club and there seems to be lots of interest!   We also had a decent inrush of orders - thanks to everyone who ordered! We...

After the tea classes and World Tea Expo, I tried to synthesize what I had learned and gathered friends for tea tasting. For my first tea tasting I invited friends I’ve known for years and asked for their honest opinions. I got lots of great feedback – “this iced tea is refreshing,” “jasmine tea is best with Chinese food,” “chamomile is blah by itself,” etc. I also learned that everyone has their own taste palate and what tested great to one person was another’s least favorite tea. I also learned to limited the number of teas for a tasting and...

As you can imagine, it’s difficult to come up with a unique, memorable name for your business. We decided early on that we didn’t want “tea” in the name in case we expanded into other products and tea become part of a bigger mix. We also felt like a lot of tea companies have masculine names and we wanted a feminine, yet modern name. So we took two classic names, Elizabeth and Katherine, and modernized them to make LizzyKate. But there’s a little more background to the story. Which version do you think is the real one? LizzyKate is named...