Traveling to distant lands and taking home souvenirs, other than touristy junk, can preserve and help to share memories of good times abroad. Sharing a cheese experienced in Holland, a fragrant fruit from a tropical island or wine from a quaint vineyard far away with friends is, if nothing else, fun. But rules and regulations, often thought to prevent that from happening, are not as tough as we might imagine.
U.S. Customs stands watch over our borders, not allowing a variety of products to enter. Plants, fruits, vegetables, meats and most food items are not allowed. There is good reason for the ban too. Dutch elm disease, hoof-in-mouth disease and the Mediterranean fruit fly epidemic were all supposedly caused by travelers sneaking stuff into the United States.
Still, there are exceptions that may offer a good reason to plan ahead when visiting a destination outside U.S. borders. Baked goods, cheeses, candy, roasted coffee beans and dried teas are products that may be brought into the United States.
When planning in advance, travelers are commonly considering that list of exceptions as a compass. Targeting coffee shops, bakeries and confectioneries as events to be experienced and documented with photos or video, travelers then share the experience with friends back home. Actually sampling what we may have traveled thousands of miles to see is a unique experience.Bringing home cheese from Edam from a trip to the Netherlands brought back memories of a good time. Sharing those memories, along with cheese from the same place and a story about how it was made, was even better.
Some products, not on the good or bad list, are probably always a bad idea to try bringing through customs, as we see in this video.