Cedar Park resident Lisa Perry said the city still has that small-town feel. She opened SereniTea Cup on Bell Boulevard to bring something new to the area. (Courtesy SereniTea Cup)
After traveling outside the U.S., SereniTea Cup owner Lisa Perry realized how significant tea is to people around the world, as a cultural experience, a bonding moment and a way to immerse oneself in new countries.
The backstory
Perry first became acquainted with tea while traveling for her corporate job, where she took business meetings over tea and toured tea farms. After retiring and ending her traveling era, Perry struggled to manage her idle time. The change prompted her husband, Scott, to ask the question: "Well, what do you love?"
“Literally, the only and first thing that popped out of my head was tea,” Perry said.
Lisa and Scott Perry did around 90% of the build-out themselves, including tasting over 1,000 teas to develop the SereniTea Cup menu.
At SereniTea Cup, teas are served unsweetened—patrons can ask for milk, sugar or honey to be served on the side. (Courtesy SereniTea Cup)
The drink menu
Today, the business is home to 65 loose-leaf teas, which Perry intends to expand until she reaches around 100 flavors. Patrons can order anywhere from an 8-ounce cup to a 48-ounce pot of hot or iced tea. Options include fruity flavors, herbal, wellness, black, white, green, oolong and chai teas.
“I love variety,” Perry said. “I love that anybody can come in here and pretty much find everything that they would like to have.”
In addition to brews and blends, she also sells tea accessories, including cups and mugs, infusers, kettles and teapots. The tea lounge and boutique also offer a selection of pastries and light bites.
To help make the experience more personal, Perry allows customers to choose their own cup—a range of standard tea cups, mugs, wine glasses, martini glasses and more. (Courtesy SereniTea Cup)
Respecting the craft
At SereniTea Cup, teas are served unsweetened—patrons can ask for milk, sugar or honey to be served on the side.
“I want to serve it to you the freshest and cleanest way that I can,” Perry explained. “It is just tea. There's nothing else in it, giving you an option to be able to have a healthy choice of tea.”
Perry also hopes to educate people about the reality of tea bags, which are often bleached and contain microplastics that people consume upon drinking. The tea lounge serves whole-leaf teas as an alternative.
“If you maintain your whole tea leaf, you have that amazing flavor profile that comes out of it, but you also get all the nutritional value out of it,” Perry said.
In the future, Perry will expand her offerings to include more herbs and carbonated teas.
Activities to do
SereniTea Cup is home to several events each month, such as a watercolor painting class, mobile bookstore pop-ups with Next Chapter Books, tea classes and afternoon tea times. Perry typically hosts afternoon tea with a new theme each month. May will feature a Mother’s Day tea.
“I just want to continue to have as much community involvement that we can bring into this tea shop, that people would love to see and have,” Perry said.
Afternoon tea is served with sandwiches, scones and pastries. (Courtesy SereniTea Cup)
The celebration
To mark the one-year anniversary of the tea house, Perry is planning a celebration from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. April 18.
The event will feature activities and games, giveaways, a space for guests to relax and enjoy tea and announcements about SereniTea Cup’s new app, which will allow customers to track and keep notes on all the tea flavors they try.
In her own words
Perry is grateful for the customers who have visited and returned to SereniTea Cup, as well as for the crew who work at the shop and have become like family.
“I can't tell you the number of times where people [have] run into each other here ... then they say sit down and they talk,” Perry said. “People meet here, [they’ve] had first dates here ... I don't think I could have ever foreseen how impactful a little tea shop could be to so many people.”
