Welcome!
If you are here, it's because you may be wondering what Carma is and who is behind it. Nice to meet you, we are Carlos and Mara, two people who fulfilled a dream.
We lived in London for about 6 years without knowing each other, learning a lot both in work and in life and each of us imagining our own ideal future. At some point the destiny wanted us to meet and from that moment on many pages and many stories have been written, all wonderful! One of these is precisely Carma.
In December 2019, we decided to take the first concrete steps towards our project and we moved back to Carlos's town (Gata de Gorgos). Within a couple of months we found in Javea the ideal place for Carma and we started the preparation.
It was our first experience in opening a business so the bureaucratic, economical and organizational difficulties were a lot and all totally new for us. Also, from time to time happened that we got a little discouraged. Thankfully we believed enough in the project and we had a great support from family and friends - that's how we didn't give up.
A week before the planned opening date the world pandemic Covid-19 exploded in Spain and a quarantine was imposed in the whole Marina Alta. All the work in progress was interrupted overnight. We were (like thousands of other people and probably you too!) forced to hang up indefinitely, without being able to do anything but wait.
In this long period we thought about Carma every day. For us it has always been much more than a simple shop, but at that point we felt like never before that there was something else. We were trying to create a meeting place in a moment in which the value of being together started to feel more special and desired than ever. Gathering with people, having a coffee before work, having a meeting, celebrating again. It has become partly our responsibility to make these already wonderful experiences even more memorable!
Carma is a coffee and pastry shop, but first of all wants to be a meeting point. From our side what we can promise you are high quality ingredients, passion in what we do and a warm welcome.
Carma was born from two personal trips that merged, but at the same time it's a new beginning, an umpteenth adventure in which all of you can get involved. Would you like to travel with us?
CARLOS
It can be said that Carlos became a pastry chef because he followed his heart. Enthusiastic and tenacious by nature, he completed his school education both in Denia and Valencia. After that he began to work for big hotel chains such as Marriott and Westin among others.
Increasingly passionate, he deepened his technique with countless specialized courses from renowned pastry chefs (including Jordi Bordas, Paco Torreblanca, Oriol Balaguer etc.) and in 2013, despite his job stability, he decided to begin a new adventure and move to London.
His courage was rewarded as he had the opportunity to grow professionally in England: after working in the pastry department of the famous Harvey Nichols, he landed at Starguest, a kosher catering company of which he would become head pastry chef. With Starguest, he had the honor to participate in the preparation of big events for the english Prime Minister and for the guests of the Queen of England at Buckingham Palace. Despite the level reached, for him was clear from the beginning that what he wished for was to have his own shop, a laboratory where he could let his creativity running free.
MARA
Mara - graduated in Communication Sciences at the University of Bergamo (Italy) - never had clear ideas about her future. After chasing her initial dream for a while and working as a copywriter in an advertising agency in Milan, she decided to change path and move to London in 2012, with the excuse of learning English and basically with the irresistible desire to start a new adventure.
She worked in a takeaway, as a waitress in a restaurant, in retail, and finally as a manager in a popular ice cream parlour before realizing that her desire was to open her own coffee shop. So she decided to deepen her coffee knowledge getting to work in one of the best coffee shop and roastery in London (Monmouth Coffee).
Eventually she seems to have discovered what makes her happy!