Transporting Tea Leaves

This doesn't address your question re. bringing tea from Morocco into Spain, but.... I have several times brought loose tea from France and from Italy into the US. I have at least three times put a tin of loose tea leaves into a TSA bin (at JFK, ATL and DEN) and (except for the TSA guy in Denver who opened the tin and spilled almost half of the tea) had no problem with it. The JFK and ATL security checks were after I arrived from Rome and Paris, and was connecting to a US domestic flight, so it would have been clear to them that this tea was imported from Europe. I did not declare the tea as an agricultural product to US customs. Portugal and Spain are both Schengen countries, so you should have no border checks between those two.

As long as it is for your own personal use and 100% vegetabilic there are very few restrictions on bringing food to the EU. It is when your food contains animal products it starts to get confusing.

@jmauldinuu

. . . I did not declare the tea as an agricultural product to US customs. . . "

Why not? It is, isn't it?

^^ You do not declare tea leaves because it does not need to be declared. US Customs is interested in fresh fruit and vegetables and meat, not tea.

While not an expert on Spanish Customs, I suspect that is also not an issue with them.

Not to be argumentative (we've had enough of that lately), but you're supposed to declare all plants and plant based products. No qualifiers about packaging or state of hydration. I think the question asked at Global Entry is simply about bringing back "food". As my friend who does agricultural inspections at an airport says, "just declare it, and we'll figure it out". Sure it will probably pass, but as I've witnessed, you don't want to piss those folks off.

I always answer yes, and when the screener asks, I say "olive oil, jam, honey cookies, chocolate, coffee and candy". All of which I know are OK, but they asked. No problems.

To be safe, I also declared spices and loose tea that I brought home from Turkey.