I didn’t have any plans for my Sunday afternoon, maybe just a little housework and some Netflix. But knowing I’ve been dealing with some stress, my bestie Niffer offered to take me out for tea. Well if you know me you know I never say no to tea, so off we went!

Oddly enough, there doesn’t seem to be any sort of tea room in Lynnwood or Mill Creek. I find myself making do with the tea offerings at coffee shops. We were in the mood for something better, though, so off we went to downtown Kirkland to visit LizzyKate.

LizzyKate is a small tea shop, but the use of light colors and bright labeling makes it feel airy and open. It consists of a retail space, a tea counter, and a few tables to enjoy tea and conversation. The employees were all friendly and helpful, and didn’t give us any side-eye when we talked for hours.

I was positively delighted to find out that they had an entire menu of hot latte drinks! Most of the time you’re lucky if you can get a chai or matcha latte, maybe a London Fog. They had a really good variety of options, including some made with non-caffeinated herbal tisanes. I ordered a delicious chocolate and caramel one made with dark chocolate tea. It was decadent.

When you order your tea, they brew it in this cool space-age looking thing. I mean, I’ve never seen one of these tea brewers before, it has a chamber for hot water at the top and then when it’s done brewing it, it decants it. I honestly have no idea how it works but it looks really high tech and awesome.

I probably can’t justify buying one of these for my apartment, right? Not to mention I don’t have the counter space.

After drinking our teas and talking for a while, we had to peruse the retail stock to get more tea to take home. They had a really good selection of loose leaf teas. One thing I appreciated was that they had a lot of unique tea blends that I hadn’t seen before. I get really bored of brands that just seem to do the same-old same-old… a chai here, a Moroccan Mint there, the obligatory Earl Grey… LizzyKate had all of these, but also some more unique flavors like Blackberry Maple, and their seasonal St. Nick’s Tea, which has flavors of cacao, vanilla, and citrus (so perfect for the holidays).

For the purists out there, they also had a variety of unblended teas, such as Darjeeling and several lovely-sounding varieties of Oolong, as well as a selection of green teas.

If you’re not in WA but you’re intrigued by these flavors, you can shop LizzyKate’s website. They even have a tea of the month club, which is sure tempting me right now!

I look forward to returning to LizzyKate soon. They also offer tea classes, so I hope to be able to sign up for one or two and blog all about them.

Do you have a favorite Seattle-area tea shop? Or even better, one up here in the hinterlands of Snohomish County? Let me know in the comments.