Jannie and Louisa are the owners of Xylo Coffee - a unique coffee roastery on the Garden Route, which uses a wood-fired coffee roaster!
We caught up with Jannie for an interview in the second of our 6-part series for this issue's Discover Great Coffee Club series, featuring some of South Africa's best new coffee roasteries!
When did the Roastery start?
XYLO’s journey began in 2018 when our family moved off-grid to live more sustainably. With abundant firewood from invasive trees on our farm, we began roasting coffee over an open fire. At first, we used a wok and stirred the beans with a wooden spoon. After a while, we experimented with different kinds of "drums" that we could find. The drum grew bigger and bigger as the demand kept rising. All being turned by hand. Our last hand-turned drum had a capacity of 8kg. Finally, in 2025, we imported our new wood-fired coffee roaster from Italy, and we rebranded our coffee label to XYLO Coffee.
Who are the key people behind XYLO?
In terms of the coffee roasting, it has always been a team effort. From gathering firewood, lighting the fire, turning the drum to cooling down the coffee beans when the beans exit the drum, everyone in our family of 6 was involved in one way or another to make sure that the final product stays consistent. But coffee roasting isn’t just about roasting the coffee; it is also about serving that coffee to someone. As the coffee roasting expanded, our team grew from our 6 family members to Team XYLO, with Hydre, Jesse, Shamiel, Jordan, and Kaylee playing a big part in making sure every customer receives the best cup of fire-roasted coffee.
From left to right: Jordan, Hydre, Shamiel, Jannie
Why did you choose your Roastery name?
We tried a few names since 2018. We began as N2 Coffee, Our Fynbos Homestead, and most recently, Fire Roasted Coffee. When we opened our kiosk in Stilbaai, we noticed customers struggled to link it with our shop at Aloe Ferox in Albertinia. We realized "Fire Roasted Coffee" described our process more than it defined our brand. This led us to seek a concise, meaningful name that embodies our unique fire-roasted process. During a family Scrabble game, we wrestled with the letter X and stumbled upon “xylo” in the dictionary — which originates from the Greek word for wood. It was a revelation. Wood fuels our distinctive roasting method, infusing our coffee with unparalleled flavor and authenticity. We knew instantly: XYLO was the name we’ve been looking for.
What kinds of coffee do you like to roast and sell?
Initially, we hand roasted a variety of origins in small batches on our open fire to taste, blend, and select. We enjoyed the taste of our Homestead Blend the most using different brewing methods. As our fire roasting process was a lot of physical effort, we simplified it by roasting only our Homestead Blend which consists of beans from Guatemala and Brazil. With our new coffee roaster, we are looking to experiment with some speciality coffees from other origins in the future to see what our wood-fired coffee roasting can bring to the table.
The Homestead Blend is bold and balanced, with dark, chocolatey flavours.
What is your coffee community like in your area, and tell us about the role the roastery plays in that?
Our hand roasting process was more of a behind-the-scenes kind of thing because the effort and concentration going into it was too much to have people standing around and talking to you while roasting. So people only heard about the fire roasting process when they were served a cup of fire-roasted coffee. Since our new wood-fired coffee roaster arrived, we find people drawn to the beauty of Italian craftsmanship - even when the roaster isn’t roasting coffee. With all the people from local Albertinia or tourists from afar just stopping by, we realized that our shop is a place where people from all walks of life come together for a good cup of coffee. We have groups of people who meet on a regular basis, while others would just want to sit quietly with their own thoughts or play a game of chess while sipping a coffee. What everyone has in common is that they want to drink a delicious cup of coffee. When you bring in the mix of overseas visitors travelling along the Garden Route, we have a very diverse coffee community. It is also amazing to see people who never met before, starting up a conversation while standing in a queue or walking past another’s table. Coffee brings people together. Lasting friendships are born around our roaster and a cup of coffee.
From left to right: Jordan, Shamiel, Hydre, Truhan, Jannie.
Tell us a fun anecdote about learning to roast!
As part of my barista training many years ago, we visited the up-and-coming coffee roasters in Johannesburg on our last day of training and the thought of roasting coffee always seemed like a daunting task. Fast forward to 2018 and stepping into our new homesteading life, we thought that people used to roast coffee at home in a pan, why not us?
So we started experimenting without any prior knowledge of roasting coffee. That’s the way we approached it from there - deliberately not looking for coffee roasting info. Up until we fired up the first batch we never saw a coffee roasting process from beginning to end. My first roast was inside our home in a wok on our gas stove. My wife chased me outside when she had to clean the chaff from all over the kitchen. That was how we actually started roasting coffee over an open fire. We burnt a few batches while learning the fire’s temperament and drank it, just because coffee is so expensive and we do our best not to waste anything. When we finally got the taste we wanted, we had to learn how to feed the flames. It is such a precious process where we feed the fire just the right amount at the right time to give us back these amazingly unique fire-roasted coffee beans. When we look back at photos from our first attempts at how uneven the beans were roasted, we can’t believe that we thought we had something going and we can’t believe that we actually kept pushing the limit of what is possible on an open fire.
From Left to Right: Jesse, Kaylee, Truhan
You can get this coffee in our latest Discover Great Coffee Club Box right here, along with 5 other incredible coffees that we've curated for you!
XYLO Coffee has crafted their signature “Homestead Blend” from beans from Guatemala and Brazil using a wood-fired coffee roaster. The Homestead Blend is bold and balanced, with dark, chocolatey flavours. Experience the unforgettable taste of XYLO Coffee. Their catch phrase is “Roasted by Fire. Bound by Bean. Rooted in Wood”
