Meet Chris and David Wilson, the creators of the new local start up Curve Coffee Roasters. The brothers moved to Moab in March 2021, coming from (most recently) Washington, DC (Chris) and Los Angeles (David). Both were seeking a better work-life balance and a change of pace, Chris from his desk job in public policy and US-Mexico relations and David from traveling for his job in engineering and sales.
Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, Chris and David’s family did a lot of cooking and experimenting with food, including a traditional Christmas morning tasting of coffees found by members of the family. They learned to value quality and community around food and drink, and when the COVID pandemic prompted a change, the brothers decided to move to Moab and turn to their shared passion for high quality coffee. Moab’s outdoor access and beautiful landscapes appealed to the brothers, and the business was also a unique opportunity to reconnect after having lived in different places since David (the younger brother) was eight years old.
The core of Chris and David’s mission is to find the best, freshest, most sustainable coffee beans and share them with the world. They spend much of their time sourcing importers and farmers that use sustainable growing practices, pay their workers a living wage or better, and produce the highest quality, specialty grade beans.
The team uses Chris’s experience as a barista and David’s background in engineering to perfect the roasting process. They are currently bringing their roaster to the Youth Garden Project’s commercial kitchen, where they’ve found a welcoming and helpful community. They typically roast a couple times a week after their orders come in, in small batches of about a pound at a time. These small batches allow for more control, more experimentation, and unique flavor profiles. They connect their computer to their roaster, a rotating drum over a fire, and closely monitor the “coffee curve,” a graph of the temperature of the roast over time, after which the company was named.
The roasted beans are then bagged and packaged at YGP, and back at “corporate headquarters” – their home in Moab – the brothers fill orders, pack shipping labels, and do the website/marketing.
Aside from Chris’s barista experience and growing up in a coffee drinking culture, the brothers taught themselves the roasting process using YouTube, books, blogs, podcasts, and a whole network of roasters who help each other out. They are constantly studying, experimenting, keeping up on trends in the coffee world, and searching for the best, newest, freshest beans out there.
Chris and David hope to grow the business while maintaining their work-life balance (getting on the river every day at 3pm) and sharing exciting things going on with coffee and farmers. They hope to eventually move to their own retail space or coffee shop and sell wholesale to restaurants, hotels, and directly to consumers.
For now, you can find Curve Coffee online, at a few upcoming community events, and on our shelves – right now we have two of their blends, “A Little Bit Cooler” (a blend of light and dark roasts designed for cold brew and iced coffee) and “A Little Bit Darker” (their take on a darker roast), as well as a decaf single origin from Brazil. Because they’re always searching for the newest seasonal coffees, they might have limited availability and changing stock of certain flavors, so follow them for the latest! Check out curvecoffeeroasters.com and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
