Bun Coffee celebrates two decades of dedication to roasting excellence, local flavour and connection to the 2479 community, writes Sally Schofield.
In 2005, a coffee roaster imported from Turkey sat in a Bangalow storage shed, waiting for its moment to bring fresh-roasted beans and cups of caffeinated goodness to the community. The plan was ambitious (and delicious): a roastery and bakery café in the historic Readings building. But when Council approval failed to materialise, Bangalow’s David and Jenny Kennedy did what all good small business owners must do at some point – pivot.
“We just needed to get roasting,” Jenny says. And so they did – in a roller-door space in Byron Bay’s industrial estate. With their Turkish coffee roaster fired up and ready to go, Bun Coffee was born.
Twenty years later, Bun Coffee has grown into one of the Northern Rivers’ best-loved coffee roasters – found in homes, local cafés, market stalls and on shelves at FoodWorks and Pantry 29. Still independently owned, still proudly local, it remains a business with a warm heart and a passion for the perfect blend.
For David, the obsession with coffee goes back even further than that humble Byron shed. Growing up in Yorkshire, he became fascinated with coffee in his teens – an unlikely interest for someone in the teadrinking heartland of the UK.
After moving to Sydney in the late 1980s, he worked in the burgeoning café scene – notably captaining the well-loved Le Chocoreve café in inner city Glebe, where he earned the nickname ‘Bun’, a reference to the English ‘sticky bun.’ It was around this time that David visited a roaster with the goal of creating his own bespoke café blend that would become his signature brew. That blend, created in 1989, is still in the Bun Coffee range today.
Not long after, David sold his café and returned to that same roaster – eventually becoming their head roaster and head of sales. “That’s where he learned the invaluable discipline and principles of the roasting craft,” Jenny says.
Moving to Bangalow in 2005, the pair settled into community life, raising three children, and creating a rainbow-coloured coffee empire from the ground up. The business launched with four house blends in what would become its signature, candy-coloured packaging, including David’s original blend (also known as ‘the yellow one’).
Today, the brand has seven regular blends and a rotating library of more than 65 single origin beans – possibly the largest single origin offering from any Australian roaster. “I don’t know anyone else who does what David does,” says Jenny. “It’s a true passion.”
Among those single origins is Byron Blue, a coffee grown in the subtropical paradise of Broken Head. “Just last week we went to the farm Emu Tree Paddock to pick up the freshly hulled green beans – it was a beautiful thing to buy direct from the grower,” says Jenny. “The aspect, the view, the fruit – it’s some of the most exceptional coffee in the world.”
Much has changed in coffee over the past 20 years – and Bun Coffee has evolved with it. “People are much more discerning now,” David says. “There’s been a real surge of interest in organics, in single origins, and in brewing styles. It used to be espresso, plunger or filter – now we’ve got batch brews, cold drip, immersion cold brew, V60s, Aeropress…”
To deepen his knowledge, David recently studied a postgraduate diploma in specialty coffee at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences. The 18-month course covered everything from cultivation and trade, to roasting, sensory evaluation and brewing. “It was exhaustive,” he laughs.
With the rise of automation in cafés – including smart machines that talk to grinders and adjust settings in real time – David sees another shift on the horizon. “There’s definitely more automation coming. Some cafés in Europe just press a button and hand you a croissant while the coffee’s made.”
Consistency and precision are very much part of the art of coffee, but there’s something warm and essential in the exchange between barista and customer. “That human element matters,” he says.
Over the years, Jenny and David been generous supporters of school fundraisers and local causes – always grounded in community. “We’ve been so fortunate to make this our business,” Jenny says. “And we’re so grateful to the locals who’ve supported us – in cafés, markets, and shops. They need to know that when they buy Bun Coffee, they’re supporting a local business who employs local people.”
In fact, many of the team – including Bangalow local, head roaster and ‘coffee machine whisperer’, Andre Schoeman – have been with the organisation for over 10 years, “which is just brilliant,” Jenny says.
As the business enters its third decade, their energy hasn’t waned. David is passionate about the future of coffee production, including a keen interest in global variety trials, and climate-adaptive planting research, as well as the potential of new species of coffee which could help to safeguard the future of global coffee production against the ravages of unprecedented climate events.
Behind the vibrant packaging that lines local shelves, Bun Coffee is still very much a hands-on operation. David and Jenny remain involved in every part of the business. “We started at the Bangalow and Byron markets – selling bags of beans by hand. That’s how it all began,” says Jenny. Industry accolades and global know-how aside, it’s the small things – a good cup, a loyal customer, a connection to growers – that matter most.