Lizzy's Corner

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...

It's finally here! After a lot of effort, we turned up the site to the world today. The labels look good, the tea tastes great, our Tea Club subscription seems to be working as expected, our hard goods are cool and we have more teas and accessories arriving in the next few days. We've spent this last week testing the site, polishing up the product descriptions, finalizing our tea club selections and so much more. Basically a lot of scurrying around so that we don't fall flat on our faces when we launch. I wanted to pull the trigger a...

My next opportunity to explore the “tea world” was the 2014 World Tea Expo in Long Beach, CA. Like everyone I’ve talked to outside of the tea world, I had never heard of the World Tea Expo. Tea vendors, tea store owners and students like me come from all over the world to attend the Expo. I found out that company hosting the expo also offers a full day Tea Business Boot Camp and full day World Origin Tasting Tour. I figured that if I wanted to learn about the business of tea I needed to jump in with both...

Once again I was at a spot where I realized I needed to learn more about tea from a professional. I searched for tea classes in the Seattle area and found a tea store called Experience Tea. Fortunately, the owner, Roberta Fuhr, is a Certified Tea Specialist which means she's taken the STI (Specialty Tea Institute) Level 1 and 2 classes plus all five of the Level 3 classes. The Level 3 classes are 1 or 2 day classes which focus on one or two types of tea (black, green, oolong, puerh, white, plus a cupping class). She has owned her wonderful store...