MEET REBECCA ZENTVELD
Director of roasting and regenerative farming practices at Zentveld's Coffee farm and roastery.
Rebecca established the Zentveld’s Coffee brand and roastery at the age of 23, on her family’s coffee plantation in Newrybar.
For over 31 years Rebecca has celebrated the local coffee harvest, gaining recognition for the NSW and wider Australian origin coffee qualities as well as the Zentveld’s coffee brand. 27
Rebecca has been President of the Australian Grown Coffee Association since 2017 and welcomes and encourages new growers and visitors to her family farm with bi-weekly tours and on site coffee house.
Agri-tourism, provenance and tase of place are key to her farming business and roastery success for the future.
Founder. Roast Mistress. Blend developer. Grower Liaison. Customer Appreciator. Chief Welcomer. Tour Host.
Director of soil health, biodiversity and regenerative farming practices. Coffee seedlings, Compost and Cover crops. Sharer of stories from seed to cup. Enthusiast of all things Australian Coffee.
Liaison and representative for Media and Government agencies. President of the Australian Grown Coffee Association since 2018.
Entrepreneur at 23.
Rebecca established her coffee roasting business “Zentveld’s of Byron Bay” at age 23, on the Zentveld family coffee farm, back in 1993.
Her soon to be In-laws, June & John Zentveld Sr were pioneer NSW coffee growers on their 50 acre property in the hills behind Byron Bay.
Prior to the move to the family farm; Rebecca and John were in Melbourne, developing an appreciation of fine espresso coffee and paying attention to roast profiles and cup offerings from Melbourne’s renowned coffee roasting and cafe scene. Of course everything roasted, served and tasted in Melbourne was of foreign bean origin, but Rebecca set about forming benchmarks in her mind for her roasting and future blend offerings. The foundations as it were, for her Australian estate coffee blends that were to mark her place in the world.
Rebecca likes to say she learnt to drink coffee in Melbourne. Learnt to roast coffee in the hills behind Byron Bay.
The Garage Days
Setting up in the garage of the farm worker’s cottage, Rebecca invested in a few key pieces of equipment to get started. A 10kg Turkish built roaster. A Greek manufactured deli-grinder. Local sourced coffee bags, a heat sealer, and nice new shiny purple stickers. They were meant to be navy blue, but kinda looked purple.
The signature “Zentveld’s Purple” came to be. It caused a distinct headache for a short moment when a few years in, Rebecca launched her chocolate coated espresso beans. Her home grown and roasted ‘peaberry’ coffee beans were now being smothered in chocolate by a friendly local macadamia farm processor. Excellent value adding, and delicious, produced with distinctly low food miles. Australians would be aware of 2 market leaders in the Australian chocolate industry who both have purple branding. One company sent a letter suggesting that our purple was too close to their trademark purple. Yes close, but different. We were able to prove that ours was an off the shelf art colour purple, different to their proprietal purple. Phew.
Learning the trade
She set about learning to unlock the flavour potential of our local coffees, with the nuances of farm processing factors taken into consideration for blend development.
Learn by doing, practice, faili, change, and repeat. Rebecca got roasting with only 2 imported books from the U.S as reference. No videos. No YouTube. No courses to attend. No podcasts. No learning alongside another skilled Roaster, or gaining experience with another coffee company. Rebecca had none of those opportunities now readily available to future generations.
Roasting is both an art and a science. You can follow the principles of roasting and learn to understand the process of unlocking the flavour potential of the bean. That is the science. The art is developing your moves through the cycle and determining particularly at the end .. just when to pull that roast. There’s numerous forces at play. Rebecca does think she has a good eye and can tell when it is just right, not just before, nor taking it too far into that second crack where the roasted flavours dominate and head into bitterness territory.
The Roast Mistress
Rebecca grew her business, along with the growing local grower industry. Within 8 years, there were 15 local growers selling their green bean or parchment coffee to Zentveld’s. Mastering the art of roasting, she was dubbed a ‘Roast Mistress’ by generously spirited Italian ‘Roast Masters’ in Melbourne who were quite intrigued to find a young woman had entered their industry and was winning awards for her Australian grown coffee single origin roasts and blends at the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show Coffee Competition, from it’s inception in 2000. Quite likely considered not a genuine threat to their stronghold on the cafe-espresso market, they were quite definitive that a ‘proper’ good espresso coffee requires a carefully balanced blend of origins. 4 or more the better for richness and complexity.
Enjoying fine cafe espressos particularly from her time in Melbourne, Rebecca had taken those principles on board and proved that an Australian origin could present so well in the cup as to win espresso medals for her single roast or blend of roast profiles, sourced only from local NSW growers. Not a hint of robusta. Not a hint of international, traditionally sourced coffees. Rebecca focused on what features were inherent in the local beans, and the complexity and interest she could bring to the cup. Highlighting local terroir, using both washed and natural /dry processes for complexity and richness in an espresso blend or celebrating stand out sweetness such as in the lighter Matilda roast profile for plunger filter coffee.
The Origin Story of Ernesto and Reserve 01
An unexpected visit from Dr Ernesto Illy of Illy cafe espresso fame remains Rebecca’s most proud day. A true master of espresso, revered for putting the chemistry and science of espresso, into written understandings for the espresso coffee industry; Dr Illy sought to visit Zentveld’s Coffee Farm in 1997. What an honour! A true Trieste Italian gentleman, distinguished in his suit, tie and hat; Dr Illy was most generous with his quote provided to the attending Media that “this espresso produces a perfect espresso. A balance of sweetness, body and acidity”. That ‘medium dark’ roast he was sipping soon gained the name “Ernesto” and remains Rebecca’s take home bean to this day.
Dr Illy attended that farm visit with his Brazilian agronomist and advised us of a farm practice that we have been doing and encouraged others ever since. To save the over ripe coffee fruit and process through to ‘dried’ naturals. For spicy dried fruit notes, dropped acidity, added complexity, richness and superb crema. As featured in Reserve 01 and Zero Mile ever since.
Rebecca has produced a few well favoured roast profiles and blends to some renown since those early days. She continues to love the local coffee, supplemented by chosen QLD estates. She is keen to source from newer growing zones across Australia as they come on board planting newly available varieties. After a few tough seasons of limited supply, she also creates espresso blends with select foreign blends to meet that demand for good taste at a more affordable price point. Every blend has a story, and origins willingly shared.
Meanwhile, on the farm there are many visitors to welcome and share with. New and potential Growers as well as those well experienced. Agronomists, researchers, developers of ag-tech, professional coffee tasters, Australian and international coffee companies, soilcare and wildlife scientists; all continue to be welcomed to the Zentveld farm and roastery. Rebecca’s love of sharing and welcoming nature extends out of the roastery, across the farm and through the coffee house with daily visitors and tours.
Rebecca has created a workplace that celebrates Australian coffee from crop to cup. She developed her name sake brand to be The Australian Coffee Specialists, focused on good taste first. She lives to that motto, whilst supporting Australian growers most actively in her ongoing volunteer role as President of the Australian Grown Coffee Industry.
