Director of roasting and regenerative farming practices at Zentveld's Coffee farm.
MEET REBECCA ZENTVELD
For over 31 years, Rebecca has celebrated the local coffee harvest, gaining recognition for the quality of NSW and wider Australian origin coffee, as well as for the Zentveld's brand she created. Rebecca continues to grow coffee on the family farm today, and it was her passion and expertise that shaped the blends we're proud to keep bringing to your cup. She remains closely connected to the brand as our Founder and Brand Ambassador.
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 an on-site coffee house.
Zentveld's history
Agri-tourism, provenance and taste of place remain key to her farming legacy and coffee's future.
Founder. Original Roaster. 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 café 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 the 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, locally sourced coffee bags, a heat sealer, and some nice new shiny purple stickers. They were meant to be navy blue, but kind of looked purple.
The signature "Zentveld's Purple" was born.
It caused a distinct headache a few years in, when 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, delicious, and produced with distinctly low food miles.
Australians would be aware of two market leaders in the Australian chocolate industry, both with purple branding. One company sent a letter suggesting our purple was too close to their trademark purple. Close, yes — but different. We were able to prove ours was an off-the-shelf art colour purple, distinct from their proprietary one. 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, fail, change, and repeat. Rebecca got roasting with only two 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 the 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's the science. The art is developing your moves through the cycle, and determining, particularly at the end, just when to pull that roast. There are numerous forces at play. Rebecca has a good eye for it, and can tell when it's just right — not too early, 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 alongside 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 its inception in 2000. Quite likely not considered a genuine threat to their stronghold on the café-espresso market, they were quite definitive that a 'proper' good espresso coffee requires a carefully balanced blend of origins — four or more, the better for richness and complexity.
Enjoying fine café espressos, particularly from her time in Melbourne, Rebecca took 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 espresso fame, and a true master of espresso chemistry and science — remains Rebecca's proudest day. A distinguished Trieste gentleman in suit, tie and hat, Dr Illy visited Zentveld's Coffee Farm in 1997, generously telling attending media, "this espresso produces a perfect espresso — a balance of sweetness, body and acidity." That medium-dark roast soon earned the name "Ernesto," and remains Rebecca's take-home bean to this day.
Dr Illy's Brazilian agronomist also shared a technique we've used and encouraged ever since: saving over-ripe coffee fruit and processing it 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.
Since those early days, Rebecca's blends have earned real renown. Her love of local coffee — supplemented by chosen QLD estates and newer growing zones across Australia — remains at their heart, alongside select international beans to meet demand at a more affordable price point. Every blend has a story, and its origins are willingly shared.
The farm remains a gathering place too — welcoming growers, agronomists, researchers, tasters, and coffee companies from across Australia and beyond, alongside daily visitors and tours through the coffee house.
Rebecca built her namesake brand to be The Australian Coffee Specialists, focused on good taste first — a motto she lives by, while championing Australian growers as President of the Australian Grown Coffee Association.
We've taken on Rebecca's roasting recipes and carried them forward, staying true to the passion and character she built into every blend.
