Curio's Curious Roots: Claire's Journey To Curio

Ever wonder the origins of Curio Spice Co? Our founder and blender-in-chief Claire shares her background and the beginning of Curio in her own words! 

I grew up in the Boston area, as well as in rural Maine where my family had a big garden and access to the forest. Every summer I’d grow herbs in my own tiny plot, or venture into the woods to forage for edible foods – fiddlehead ferns and blueberries, fir tips and wild roses. Every winter my dad would come home with a giant bag of expired seed packets from a friend who ran a farm stand. He’d dump them out on our living room floor and I’d spend the next several days organizing them, inviting friends over to take seeds and plan gardens. 

When not gardening, I traveled, diving deep into the ecologies of other countries – learning which plants fought Malaria in Ghana, or what weeds were the most peppery for salads in Italy. My upbringing was a patchworked journey of botanical travels, so it’s no surprise that after a stint in the speciality coffee industry (where I became a competitive barista and learned the value of disrupting commodity supply chains by sourcing directly from small farmers) I settled on the allure of becoming a full-time spice merchant. A pepperer. 

Before launching Curio, I spent time studying the ancient and present-day production of saffron in Greece and Turkey, self-published a book entitled Art of the Harvest with paintings, writing and recipes about this intriguing and treasured spice. I then spent time in SE Asia traveling to spice origins – Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Indonesia – meeting farmers and learning about the speciality spice trade. 

Returning home with duffel bags of spices in 2014, I launched Curio Spice Co. out of my garage with $600 and a Vitamix blender. I established the business with three original spice mixes, inspired by my travels: Kandy Spice, a Sri Lankan inspired blend, Kampot & Salt, centered on the rare Cambodian black pepper, and Kozani Spice, my ode to Greek saffron. My strong network in the Boston and Cambridge food scene supported my business, and after a year of graveyard shifts in friends’ commercial kitchens I opened the storefront on Mass Ave to have my own production space and retail storefront. 

Today, Curio Spice Co has evolved into a mission-driven spice brand based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.