It had been four years since our last visit to the UK, so when we attended the London Coffee Festival earlier this spring we were eager to hear from local baristas about their current favorite roasters. One company kept coming up: Curve Coffee Roasters in Margate.
After being blown away by their coffee at the festival, my partners at Etkin and I decided to make the two-hour train journey to Margate, located on the north coast of Kent.
With its beach and 102-year-old amusement park Dreamland, Margate was once a popular holiday destination for Londoners. After falling on hard times in the latter half of the 20th century, a recent surge of young professionals and families moving into the area has given the city a bit of a boost.
Although Curve is perhaps best known around the UK for its carefully-sourced coffees and bright, fruity roasting style, for the community in Margate, it’s also a gathering place– the sort of spot you can take your sand-covered dog after a walk on a beach and grab a kimchee toastie for lunch. (And yes, you should absolutely get the kimchee toastie for lunch.)
We enjoyed tasting our way through both Curve’s food and coffee offerings. There wasn’t a subpar coffee to be had, but a naturally processed Peru from producer Marcelino Chinguel stood out. This coffee was one of the fruits of an origin trip Curve co-founder Tereza Vertatova took to Cajamarca.
After we drunk our weight in coffee, Tereza was kind enough to take us to Curve’s roastery located just out of town in a charming industrial facility. Here, surrounded by mechanics and body shops, the roasting team at Curve cranks out batch after batch of coffee on their Loring S15 Falcon. Although their roastery isn’t typically open to the public, Curve has ambitions to host more events in their recently opened training lab next door.
For those interested in trying Curve Coffee around London, we enjoyed their coffee at The Penny Drop in Fitzrovia and Nostos Coffee in Battersea. But we also think those coffee pilgrims lucky enough to make the trip to Margate will be glad they did.
