‘Twas a hot day in Seattle when my search for local coffee shops somehow led to this South African tea house. Well, it wasn’t quite as serendipitous as that. My dad and I had just hiked all the way up to Kerry Park from the bottom of Queen Anne “Hill” (more like mountain), where we parked our car, and I was in dire need of a place to recuperate and refresh. (I don’t know why we didn’t just drive all the way up to Kerry Park; I threw my hands up in the air when I saw that there was a main road that led right up to it.)

It was our first time there, so the women behind the counter introduced their South African tea house and asked if we had anything in mind they could help us with. Throughout my stay, I noticed that the women almost always recognised their returning customers and never failed to welcome the new ones.

I just needed something light to cool me down. The blackboard behind the counter was promoting the iced rooibos latte, and since the women had just told us that their tea house is especially known for their rooibos infused beverages, I went for it, and thank goodness I did, because however else would I have known what I was missing out on? The iced rooibos latte tasted just like unsweetened Thai tea!

Dad got a hot rooibos latte, and we got a melktert and sausage roll to go, because I couldn’t bring myself to eat anything heavy on such a hot day. But packaged food isn’t all that fun to take pictures of. Next to us, there were two girls having afternoon tea, their tabled lain with floral tablecloth, upon which spread a decadent tier of pastries, as well as a tea pot dressed in a knitted tea cosy.

I kept their table in my peripheral vision so that I would know when they left so that I could sidle over to sneak a few pictures before their waiter cleaned up. I didn’t want to be that person hovering over as they left their table though, so I waited for them to leave the tea house and for the door to shut close behind them. But the waiter was too quick. I scrambled over and meekly asked if I could take a few pictures of the set up before he cleared the table. #bloggerlife

Except for chai lattes, I’ve never had tea infused coffee before, not even matcha lattes (keep in mind that this post is almost a year delayed; I’ve definitely had matcha lattes in the past year). Ever since Cederberg, I’ve been trying to get some rooibos of my own. I’ve had a go at Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Spice Rooibos Tea and Trader Joe’s Rooibos and Honeybush Tea. I couldn’t stomach either of them 🙁 Will my iced rooibos latte experience be nothing more than a summer’s dream?

I would have been happy staying at Cederberg all day until I grew an appetite enough to order my own afternoon tea, but Dad wanted to go back to Kerry Park, because the picture I took of him wasn’t good enough -_-” To be fair, it was a pretty bad picture, in which I accidentally cropped out a part of him. (Not my fault! The glare from the sun made it hard for me to see the screen!) But we hiked all the way up, so we gotta make sure the picture is worth it. The picture is the only thing we ever do things for, right? ;P

tl;dr– Cederberg Tea House is known for their rooibos infused beverages, so I highly recommend their iced rooibos latte! It’s a very close walk from Kerry Park, so if you decide to hit up one of these destinations, you should check out the other too.

PS: cafe cesura, maan coffee, hothouse coffee, milk & honey cafe