Dammann Frères
Dammann Frères is one of the oldest names in French tea. The company's history begins in 1692, and the house itself dates its tea trade from 1825. Today its teas and infusions are sourced, blended, flavored and packed at its own factory in Dreux, west of Paris, and sold through its Paris shops and in some 66 countries around the world.
The house
The modern Dammann Frères takes shape in 1825, when the company took over the Derode tea and vanilla business and ran a tea factory in Batavia. A century later, in 1925, the brothers Pierre and Robert Dammann were at the helm, and in 1926 a tea factory opened in New York under Véra Dammann. The decisive turn came in 1949, when Jean Jumeau-Lafond joined the company and tea became its sole business; the Jumeau-Lafond family has shaped the house ever since.
In 1980, Jacques and Didier Jumeau-Lafond developed the Cristal® sachet, the tea bag that remains the house's signature format. The Italian coffee group illy became majority shareholder in 2007, and the first Dammann Frères boutique opened in Paris in 2008, followed by others in the capital and a first tearoom abroad in Osaka in 2011. That same year the company moved its headquarters and production to Dreux. In 2021 the tea bags were reformulated with PLA, a plant-based material.
Around 200 people work at the Dreux site, where the house controls every step: selecting and checking the leaves, composing the blends, adding natural flavors, and packing into Cristal® bags, boxes and gift tins. Emmanuel Jumeau-Lafond, of the founding family, is among the blenders who compose the recipes.
What they make
Dammann Frères is the largest brand on our shelves, with close to two hundred references. The range runs from classic black and green teas to the scented blends the house is known for, plus fruit infusions, herbal teas, seasonal Christmas editions, gift boxes and a full line of tea accessories.
- Jardin du Luxembourg N°215 – a floral green oolong named after the Paris garden, in a canister.
- Earl Grey Yin Zhen – the house Earl Grey in Cristal® tea bags.
- Carcadet Passion Framboise N°539 – a caffeine-free hibiscus and fruit infusion with passion fruit and raspberry.
- Merveilles herbal tea – a caffeine-free verbena and lime-blossom tisane.
- Strong Breakfast Classical Blend – a full-bodied Assam, Ceylon and Darjeeling blend in a 1 kg loose format.
Browse the complete Dammann Frères collection for loose teas, tea bags, canisters, gift sets and accessories such as infusers, teapot filters and mugs.
Why Clipperton chose them
Clipperton is a family importer, and we work directly with the makers we carry. Dammann Frères was an obvious choice: a house that has spent generations on tea, with the founding family still composing its blends and everything still made in its own French factory rather than outsourced. Its scented teas are a fixture of French kitchens, and we wanted Canadian and American tea drinkers to have the same shelf to choose from, in the same packaging, freshly shipped. We have written about the house before, in our story on Dammann Frères and the Eiffel Tower.
