Well, here we are again.

It’s late June, and tomorrow we’ll head out into the countryside to celebrate midsummer with our extended family.

Once the solstice is behind us, we’ll be pointing our wheels North, to spend some time at our little wooden house on the Baltic coast.

From my leaf obsessed perspective one of the most important tasks pre-departure is to nail down what exactly I’ll be putting into my travelling tea kit.

Last year my terror at the very prospect of being left without some decent leaves for my pot when on the road meant that I significantly overcalculated, which resulted in me trailing a lot of extra weight and bulk up and down the country.

For this trip I’ve pared both the hardware and away-from-home stash down dramatically.

The leaves I’ll be taking along for the ride this time around will be 366 grams of the 2010 Hai Lang Hui Wei sheng pu-erh beeng I reviewed in February, and 348 grams of the Haiwan Sweet Aroma shou pu-erh beeng I wrote about in October of last year. If luggage space allows I might throw in a handful of Bai Mu Dan, possibly a session’s worth of a black tea and an Oolong, let’s see.

On the teaware side I’ll be packing nothing more than a knife to help break up the beengs, my Kamjove pot, and my stout, used only for travelling red rose Mun Shou pattern teacup.

Endless days, good tea.

Happy times…