Traveling with tea

It wasn’t until I went home recently to visit my siblings, and I saw their reaction when I pulled out my Teavana travel tea kit, that I realized that just maybe not everyone travels with their own tea?!

I mean, that’s crazy talk, right? Who doesn’t want to have their own favorite tea with them, even when they travel? I can’t even…but I did take a little teasing from my siblings when I pulled it the first day out to make my morning cuppa.

As one of my favorite tea things, I’ve used it multiple times, traveling for both vacation and work. I just like my tea the way I like it, down to the tea bags and brown sugar cubes, so it pretty much goes where I go!

I tend to use the three cannisters for loose tea, tea bags and brown sugar cubes, or occasionally I add a second tea and just use the neoprene holder that uses a velcro fastener to hold in a few loose bags to bring along.

It all fits nicely together into about a 3×8-inch package that I can easily slip into my luggage. This particular kit also comes with a strainer, but I tend to go for disposable bags which are lighter and take up less room. There’s enough loose tea in the longer cannister to keep me going for at least a week.

I think this particular tea kit might not be so easy to find anymore, or maybe one can still stumble across one on eBay or other site. Which is disappointing, as I like this one because it’s just about the tea. When I travel, I can always find a tea kettle or pot – either in a hotel, or if I’m visiting family, so I don’t need to bring that part of the tea ceremony with me.

That being said, there are some pretty amazing travel tea sets out there that include the pot and mugs as well, if that is preferred.

• Umi Tea Sets – They have some great variety, some with full pot/cups, others a little smaller for one.
• Etsy – Of course check out what Etsy has, coming from a variety of vendors
• Tea and Whisk – another site with a number of great looking sets

And if you just want to have a bit of your own tea with you when you travel and leave out the pot and mug, you could always improvise – just look for some smaller tins, fill them with your favs, and tuck them away in your luggage. Then when you get to your hotel, or are with family members, you’ve got the tea you want (or maybe need!) to get going in the morning, or to be refreshed in the afternoon.