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About

Symposium currently has a small team who share a common interest in Coffee & Philosophy. We focus on East African & Geisha coffees which are fruity, floral and complex.

We started life as a slot roasting company in Tottenham, North London, from our humble beginnings we have managed to buy our own Giesen W6 Coffee Roaster, we are currently based in Rickinghall, Suffolk

Symposium was founded by Steven Sheard who has studied Philosophy at Birkbeck University of London, spent several years in the British Army and briefly worked in Sales.

Our sustainable coffee sourcing model focuses on direct trade & sourcing through carefully selected coffee importers that encourage producers to Improve the quality of their coffees meaning a higher price. This can make a huge difference to household incomes as well as protecting the forests in East Africa. When farmers can build profitable coffee businesses, they don’t have to clear trees to create space for agriculture.

We use Eco-friendly packaging from the Dutch Coffee Pack Company who invests in CO2-reducing projects in coffee growing countries, meaning the green house gas emissions needed to produce the coffee bags, are completely compensated. They only work on projects with the Gold Standard certification. This ensures that - besides negating carbon emissions – these projects benefit local people and their health and maximise sustainable development

Dog and Hat

As you would expect, here at Dog and Hat we have tasted coffee from most parts of the world, however there are still a few exceptions.  That's why we jumped at the chance of tasting a coffee from Zimbabwe when Steven got in contact with us.  It's always nice to tick off another origin and get an understanding of a whole new set of producers.