Dammann Freres Edit

I visited the Dammann Frères shop today as I wanted to buy several teas.
I already visited this place in the past and I would have given a 5 stars rating without hesitation.

But now it is different.

Since my last visit they changed different things and mainly the central square testing table.
The “two rows of little wooden cubbies with lids set” as described by Dinosara just disappear and to replace, they inserted a tea tin inside (you cannot take it off, they are blocked by the woodwork).

To me it’s a great loss because it involves to bend down more to smell the teas (especially because they don’t put enough tea inside their tins)

However it seems to me that we can smell less blends than before.
I had to ask to the big counter to sniff this one or this one and I don’t like to ask someone for something I can do by myself without annoying anyone. When someone is carrying a big canister just for you to sniff, you just take less time to do so.

Of course I appreciate the fact we cannot sniff all the blends because there are too much and they cannot expose all, but many best sellers were lacking from the testing table.

After reading Dinosara review I thought I can buy 50 gr on teas if I was ordering many.
It wasn’t the case. The employee told me it was just possible for white teas and certain blends (no idea of the “rules” on which it was possible or not)
I asked her I wanted to buy several and so buy by 50 grams but she didn’t ask how many I wanted (I had 10 on my list so it was still coherent commercially to agree this)

While pouring my tea in the bags, she left me to go to see another client…
I really appreciated !

I finally bought only 3 because I was disappointed. I Had the right to take 50grams of the Charlotte au chocolat (why ? no idea)
Looking at my invoice, I realize she sold me this tea 7 € for 50 grams…on the website it is mentioned 8 € for 100 grams …

It was raining (a big rain) all day long in Paris and they just give you a paper bag…as if Teas were loving humidity (Mariage Frères on rainy day give their famous paper bag with a special plastic bag on the top of it)

So my recent experience with Dammann Frères Shop is not as pleasant as I was expecting.

Having said that : their teas remain fantastic, the shop is still lovely and the accessories (tea pot, mugs, tins, tea boxes) are fantastic so it remains a good place to visit.

The quality of the shops(in general)depends a lot of the reception you receive from the sales persons.
The woman I saw today was quite cold and “mechanical”, polite but without any friendly attitude.
It is quite rare because each time I visited the shop in the past I had fantastic sales persons and received a warmest welcome.

So I may change my review for a next visit I hope.

The Dammann Freres shop was like an island of serenity on an otherwise bustling Paris Saturday in the spring. With less imports to the US, Dammann isn’t as well known as Mariage Freres, so their tea shop doesn’t seem to draw quite as many American tourists. The shop was very open, with a lot of gift packages, tins of tea, and other tea parapheniela carefully arranged. There’s not a tea room in this shop, it’s soley a place to buy tea. There was a big square table in the shop with two rows of little wooden cubbies with lids set into it where you could smell most of the flavored teas they offer. The table was probably waist height, so it involved bending down to stick your nose in the cubby, which was a little awkward but not too bad. Then there’s the big counter with shelves of big cannisters of tea.

When I approached they were very happy to help me discover some of their teas, but I had a list of must-haves that I had found on their website (and confirmed by smell on the tea-table), so I knew what I wanted. They ostensibly had a 100g minimum on each tea, but the employee that helped me said that if I was ordering a bunch of teas they could do 50g on some of them (there was probably a bit lost in translation; I don’t really speak French, and he spoke only a little English). I ended up getting 50g on 3 out of the 5 teas I ordered, and it seemed like a woman was getting hers while I was there got 50g on all of the 20-something teas she ordered. In any case, it was nice to have some flexibility and it let me get more teas than if it was a flat 100g minimum on all of them. Even if you order your tea by weight, they’re happy to sell you some gift packaging for it, as someone else did while I was there.

Overall a fantastic tea experience and I can’t wait to go back. If you go to Paris and only to Mariage Freres, skipping this one, I think you’re really missing out.