ABOUT US
OUR STORY
JOE, BARA, BEN & EVERYONE ON THE WAY
Campbell & Syme was founded in 2012 by Joe Syme who fell in love with the coffee culture when visiting Portland, Oregon. Immersed in the city's vibrant coffee scene, particularly captivated by Stumptown Coffee Roasters with their outlets all over the city, Joe returned home with a newfound passion. He started roasting his own coffee and selling it at farmer’s markets. Soon after he opened C&S flagship café in East Finchley and eventually bought a 6kg blue Giesen that was installed inside.
East Finchley café became a place for us to connect with a community, share our experiences and to build people’s understanding about speciality coffee through public cuppings, coffee workshops and everyday conversations. It’s also the place where Bara met Joe, initially volunteering to learn how to make coffee, eventually becoming one of the co-owners and Joe’s wife. Ben walked into the East Finchley café few years later, fascinated by roasting process and asking about volunteering too. With his absolute dedication and hard work, Ben worked his way up to head of coffee and ultimately became one of the co-owners of the business too.
A lot changed since then, our roastery operations moved to larger premises, our company has grown over the years with people adding their valuable skills and knowledge and we had the priviledge to meet so many wonderful human beings on our journey.
Our key values remain the same - we roast dreamy coffees grown by superstar producers, we share them with our wholesale companions, our cafe & online community and we appreciate the opportunity to do what we love in a responsible and respectful way.
COLLECTIVE EFFORT
Outstanding coffee does not just appear.
The incredible journey of the bean all the way to your cup is guided by hundreds of hardworking human beings. Let’s talk about all the smallholder farmers, pickers, agricultural workers, producers, co-operatives, exporters; then there are traders and importers, people involved in logistic and administration, quality controllers, roasters and baristas and then there is you, at the end of its journey.
Even though we think the coffee’s journey is rather breath-taking, there is no magic behind it.
We believe that behind everything we do, there’s collective effort. Sharing and learning together became one of our greatest values and it extends to our everyday life. The great privilege of enjoying all the extraordinary coffees out there shouldn’t be exclusive therefore we want to make this special coffee experience accessible to everyone. There is no greater joy really!