Customs in Europe

[Jayaratna]

Hi all,

I'd like to know if other people in Europe are experimenting customs problems with tea from chinese ebay vendors. They just refused to let in a parcel I got from Dragon Tea House because of sanitary reasons.

[engar]

This week I received an order from Scott of YSLLC without any problem, but he told me he had problems with Spanish customs with other customers.

[Ritva]

Customs in Finland had opened my last parcel from Dragon Tea House, but they let it through anyway. I think they were suspicious about jasmine pearls - it might have looked strange in their X-Ray or whatever that machine is. I've also received tea from several other Chinese vendors (including YSLLC and TeaSpring) without any problems.

[gingkoseto]

For US, I heard, express mails such as EMS and FedEx (and other similar services) bypass the custom, so things arrive all safe (but expensive!). Other mailing methods, it all depends on how luck you are, especially for tea leaves stuff.

[olivierco]

I remember to have seen that some ebay sellers refused to send tea to Italy because of customs problems.

[Chip]

A Japanese vendor told Italy is really "difficult," not exactly his wording.

[heavydoom]

no problems here in canada. knock on bamboo.

[Jayaratna]

Thanks everyone for your help. In this case, I came to know it was not the customs, but a kind of sanitary airport authority blocking my tea on its way. Now I'm very very thirsty (and will be for quite a while I guess!).