Why it belongs in ORBIS
Compagnie & Co, which describes itself as the oldest French tea brand, was founded in Paris in 1848 by the Meric family as a chocolate importer before pivoting to tea, and sells loose-leaf and bagged teas, rooibos and herbal infusions blended in France, including steam-aromatised and organic-certified ranges.
Compagnie Coloniale traces to 1848 in Paris, founded by the Méric family and generally cited as France's oldest tea brand. It began as an importer and distributor of chocolate before shifting its focus to tea, opening its first boutique at 19 avenue de l'Opéra - an address that stayed the brand's emblematic shop for years - and inaugurating its first factory on rue Lesueur, near the Arc de Triomphe, in 1850, an operation that at its height employed some 450 people. The house built its identity on a marine-anchor logo and black-and-gold striped tin boxes that are still recognizable today, and it renamed itself Compagnie & Co in 2022 while keeping the historic mark. The current range runs to loose-leaf and bagged teas, rooibos and herbal infusions, all blended and packaged in France, spanning green, black and white teas, matcha, and accessories, with a steam-aromatised range and organic-certified blends alongside the core catalogue. For a house closing in on 180 years, the through-line is continuity of place and symbol - the same anchor, the same striped tin, carried from an 1848 chocolate importer's storefront near the Opéra to a present-day online shop still selling tea under a name that has changed only once.