It's Tea Time.

Drink.

The holidays are a time for relaxing and sharing festive food and drink with loved ones. But what do you do with the week in between the holidays and New Years? Although I enjoy having down time it usually means that I pick up more than my fair share of the errands that my husband and I usually run on the weekends. Running errands in a suburban area is daunting, I am sure …but running errands in NYC turns you into an urban warrior. If you don’t use your survival skills and have a mean game face then chances are you will never make it through.

This led me to believe that I needed to incorporate more stress relievers in my life. Although I wish I could schedule a weekly massage, that is really not in the cards right now with Hip Hostess being a new endeavor.

I searched the internet for stress relievers and one thing that kept popping up was tea. So after my less than poetic conversation with the Citibank manager (seriously, if you are a manager shouldn’t you possess some kind of people skills or at least comprehension), I decided that now was the perfect time to brew up a pot.

I found the below recipe and it didn’t disappoint, I did in fact, feel soothed and my tension eased, plus the kumquats made it visually lovely. So not only is it great for taking away knots but it would also be nice to share with guests. --b

Recipe
1 kumquat, hot water, your favorite tea (our's is Earl Grey) and some honey to taste.

Brew tea for 4 minutes and then strain, crush 1 kumquat into a glass, making sure the juices from the rind are released. Top off with hot tea. Let kumquat infuse for a few minutes. Add some honey or sugar to taste.