Seeking advice: transporting tea
 

I will be traveling from Canada to Europe via US. I have to bring to a friend 500gr (about 1 lb.) of premium Earl Grey tea from a local shop.

With the idea of minimizing trouble with customs officers, I am looking for recommendations as to whether I should place a (fairly large) bag of tea leaves in my carry-on or checked luggage.

(I am currently tempted to place this in a Ziploc with my carry-on for easy inspection if required.)

Tea in your carryon is no problem. Declare it when you arrive, carry it on when you connect.

Ironically, should you choose to steep it before you connect, you are a bad person. :mad:

I haven't tried carrying my Lapsang Souchong yet, but I bet that anything that looks like tea and smells like smoke isn't going to go over too well. :D

Before airport "security" went into the crapper, I brought a box of gunpowder tea back from the UK.

I wonder what would happen if that were noticed in my carryon today. :(

I know it's tough not to feel inordinately proactive these days, but customs and the baggie carnival have nothing to do with one another. Bottom line: you don't need to Ziploc to transport dried tea.

:eek:

I hadn't thought of that! That's my fave kind of tea ... :)

We take tea regularly to the US for family/friends. Never had any problems.

Yup, you'll be fine -- just declare it and it can go in either bag. My husband and I brought back at least 10 tins of tea from England a couple of months ago...

To be honest, I'm not even sure you need to declare it. I never have and I don't see what part of the customs rules you'd need to declare it under.

Specifically tea is mentioned by the Customs rules:

I've never seen any restrictions on tea - if it is tea. :rolleyes: