Leonhard "Hardi" Wild was a professional ice hockey goalkeeper who played in Cologne, Hamburg and Munich. Stefanie Wild skied competitively at a high level for years until an injury ended her career. When these two former top athletes founded Wildkaffee in 2010, they opened the very first roastery in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a small Bavarian town at the foot of the Alps, better known for its slopes than for its coffee. The project did not come out of nowhere: back in 1892, Leonhard's great-grandfather, Leonhard Panholzer, ran a grocery at Partenkirchen station where he sold roasted coffee imported from Hamburg, a rarity at the time. More than a century later, the couple picked up this family thread, and took it much further.
Before coffee, Stefanie and Leonhard already had a background in hospitality: a sandwich franchise, then a Neapolitan pizzeria on the shores of Lake Walchensee, and another in Munich's Schrannenhalle. They knew how to run a business, but what bothered them was the mediocre coffee served in most places. The idea of roasting for themselves took shape gradually. Leonhard trained with partner roasters and discovered specialty coffee, its flavour profiles and its demands. The first trips to producing countries did the rest: direct contact with farms, physical work alongside producers, and a deep understanding of what quality coffee really costs. The roastery first occupied a garage-like space in a Partenkirchen backyard, with a small café next door where curious locals came to taste. Word of mouth spread fast.
From a Partenkirchen Garage to Farchant
Growth pushed Wildkaffee to move its roastery to the neighbouring village of Farchant, where it still is today. Physically separating the roastery from the café made it possible to focus more on roast profiles, samples and cuppings. In 2011, roaster Josef Staltmayr joined the team and brought extra rigour to the work on the bean. Wildkaffee roasts on a drum roaster, with long profiles, aiming to reveal the character of each origin rather than impose a uniform roast signature. In 2014, a new café opened in the centre of the Garmisch district, near the station, in an urban style that contrasts with the surrounding Alpine scenery. Four years later, in 2018, the café was handed over to Benny Fleischhacker, a long-time employee, so that Stefanie and Leonhard could devote themselves fully to roasting and sourcing. The team now numbers nine people.
The name itself tells a story: "Wild" is Leonhard's surname, but "Wildkaffee" also echoes the wild varieties of Ethiopia, the unlisted cultivars that grow in the forests of coffee's birthplace. A nod to the plant's origins, tucked into a Bavarian family name.
The Coffee School Project and the Link to Producers
What sets Wildkaffee apart on the German specialty scene is the scale of its commitment on the ground. Stefanie and Leonhard personally know more than 85% of the producers whose coffee they buy. But they did not stop at farm visits. Together with Rodolfo Ruffatti Batlle, a fifth-generation producer in El Salvador whose family has farmed land in the west of the country since the 1930s, they launched the "Coffee School Project". Wildkaffee acquired a farm in the Buenos Aires region of El Salvador, where it trains local farmers in specialty coffee growing techniques. The idea is simple in principle and ambitious in execution: pass on skills so that every producer can get better prices by improving the quality of their coffee. Rodolfo Ruffatti Batlle now runs the project day to day and supports the local community.
This approach continues in the "Farmers Voice" range, Demeter and organic certified, whose packaging was recognised at the SCA Coffee Design Awards. Wildkaffee also offers a "Brewers Cup Series" for lovers of manual brewing. In 2023, crema, the leading specialist magazine in the German-speaking world, named Wildkaffee "Roaster of the Year", an award given since 2008 by an independent jury and regarded as one of the most significant distinctions on the coffee scene in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The following year, in 2024, Martin Wölfl, of the Wildkaffee team, won the World Brewers Cup. For a project born in a garage at the foot of the Zugspitze, the journey says a lot about what tenacity and curiosity can achieve when they meet the right bean.
