Lizzy's Corner

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....

During the summertime, don't we all find ourselves drinking more iced tea, especially in the afternoons? We discovered cold brewing a few years ago, and it’s simplified how we make iced tea. Here are the very easy steps: Fill a pitcher or large glass with cold water. Add 1 teaspoon of loose leaf (1 tablespoon for whites or “flufflier” teas) for every 8 ounces of water. Use a tea infuser, paper tea filter or a pitcher with a built-in tea infuser (all available at lizzykate.com). Place in the refrigerator for 6+ hours (we do ours the night before and let...

Matcha is a special type of green tea made from the fine powder of ground tea leaves. Instead of steeping it like you do with green leaves, you whisk it with hot (not boiling) water and consume the entire drink, including the powdered leaf. For many centuries, matcha has been used as a ceremonial beverage in the Japanese tea ceremony. These days you don't have to travel to Japan to experience traditional matcha. Here's an overview of the steps and tools used to make matcha in a more relaxed environment than a formal tea ceremony. Scoop about 1/2-1 teaspoon of ceremonial grade matcha...

A frequently asked question at the Kirkland tea shop is: what are your most popular teas? We crunched the numbers and here's the answer for 2024. First a little background, black teas have dominated the top 5 since we opened the shop in 2016. However, a couple of years ago, a green tea started to climb into the top 10 and then top 5. Keep reading to see which tea that is. Lizzy's Breakfast Supreme: our house breakfast tea is a blend of teas from four countries (China, India, Sri Lanka and Taiwan). Amy drinks it first thing every morning...

Tea plus the holiday season make a great combination! Here are some ideas to incorporate tea into your holiday meals and entertaining: Flavored black teas like the popular St. Nick's Tea and Earl Grey Cream make a great base for tea lattes to serve with a holiday breakfast or brunch. Black teas and oolongs pair well with appetizers, rich cheeses and meat dishes. Green teas go well with salads and lighter dishes and meals. Fruity blends and herbal blends make great dessert teas and are also a nice option for kids and others who are looking for a non-alcoholic drink with...

You may have heard iced tea was invented at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. From our research, it’s more appropriate to describe it as “iced tea was popularized” at the Fair because recipe books and other materials refer to iced tea long before 1904. Since the late 1800s, Americans in the southern part of the US have enjoyed cold tea. They would let hot tea cool down in the summertime and drink the cooler tea. If they could afford ice, they added ice to cool it even more. At the World’s Fair in 1904 an Englishman named Richard...

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...

Most Americans use the term “tea” for any type of warm drink made from tea leaves or herbs. Technically, only “true tea” which is made from the leaves of the tea plant (camellia sinensis) should be called tea. Herbal and other blends from non-tea plants are called herbal infusions or by their plant name (rooibos, honeybush, chamomile, etc.) At LizzyKate we carry about ten blends with either red or green rooibos as an ingredient. Some interesting rooibos facts: Rooibos is a caffeine-free herb that comes from the Rooibos bush which grows near Cape Town, South Africa. It has gained recent...

As you may have guessed, we enjoy pairing tea with different types of foods. Once or twice a year we host a Tea + Cheese flight at our tea shop in downtown Kirkland, WA. Here are the teas on a tea flight pairing we did a couple of year ago: White Peony, Sencha Fukamushi, Ti Kwan Yin Imperial, Kenilworth Ceylon and Yunnan Imperial. The cheeses were brie, parmesan, goat cheese, mozzarella, and cheddar. Participants were able to pair five teas with fives cheese for a total of 25 combinations. Surprisingly, the consensus among many of the participants was that the goat cheese...

As many of you know, the LizzyKate tea lattes are popular at our Kirkland storefront. If you can't make it into the shop, we wanted to share our recipe for making your own at home. Here's a recipe for 12 oz hot tea lattes. Steep 1 tablespoon of loose leaf tea in 8 oz of water. Follow the normal directions for water temperature and steep time on the LizzyKate package. The amount of tea will vary by tea type (less tea for a compact tea like a rolled oolong and more tea for a fluffy white tea). Add sweetener to...

Sencha is the most popular style of tea in Japan, accounting for 80% of tea consumed there. Sencha is known for its nice green color and notes of grass and seaweed. The factors which influence how sencha tastes are the season, processing, cultivar and terroir. The first tea leaves harvested in early spring are made into a special sencha called Shincha (new tea). Tea leaves harvested later in the spring and summer are made into Sencha. Tea plants producing leaves for sencha are usually grown in full sun, unlike other types of Japanese tea (for example, gyokuro and matcha) which...

Tea and chocolate are delightful on their own, and they’re even better together! Over the past few years, we’ve learned a lot about which flavors pair well from hosting Tea + Chocolate pairings at the tea shop. Of course, everyone has their own palate and favorite combinations, but we’ve seen some common themes. White chocolate pairs well with most teas. This was a surprise to us and our customers. The white chocolate adds sweetness to the teas and still lets their unique flavors come through. Milk chocolate is similar to white chocolate but with deeper chocolate notes. Dark chocolate can...