The story of the Wildkaffee roastery began in 2010. The two founders, Leonhard and Stefanie Wild, originally came from professional competitive sports. While Stefanie was successful as an alpine skier for years and had to end her career due to an injury, Leonhard Wild worked as a professional ice hockey goalkeeper in Cologne, Hamburg and Munich, among other places. From an early age, both wanted to create a second source of income alongside sport.
First beginnings
Leonhard and Stefanie Wild were already interested in high-quality food during their sporting careers. They started out with a branch of a sandwich franchise chain. Their success in the gastronomic sector was then to be further developed: first they opened a Neapolitan pizzeria on Lake Walchensee, then another pizzeria in the Schrannenhalle in Munich. After successful years in the gastronomic sector, they then decided to go in a similar but different direction. For a long time, both were bothered by the poor quality of coffee that was mostly available in shops. So why not do it all themselves?
The idea of a coffee roasting company was born
Leonhard Wild's great-grandfather, Leonhard Panholzer, ran a small grocery store at Partenkirchen train station in 1892, where he also sold roasted coffee from Hamburg. At that time, this was a real rarity.
Leonhard and Stefanie Wild took up this fact and founded the Wildkaffee roastery - the first coffee roastery in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The goal: to only process the highest quality green coffee. The path to this goal was not an easy one, of course. Before the company was actually founded, the infrastructural and technical conditions had to be created so that the idea of having their own coffee roastery could be realized.
Leonhard was able to gain the necessary specialist knowledge from friendly partner roasters, which gave him a completely new perspective on the entire world of coffee. Little by little, he learned the complex craft of coffee roasting and the many new facets of specialty coffee. To consolidate their knowledge and experience, Stefanie and Leonhard also undertook their first coffee trips to the countries of origin of coffee. The conditions and circumstances on and around the farms left a lasting impression. Of course, the two of them also pitched in themselves, because only those who have helped out in person get a real impression of the hard work that goes into producing such high-quality coffee.
But it is not just the constant information about news in the coffee sector that is a big part of our motivation. We want to use our years of experience in the field of coffee. To this end, we have set up coffee projects together with a number of cooperation partners, such as our farmer Rodolfo Ruffatti Batlle, where we can share our sustainable and social motivation with local farmers. The Coffee School Project is leading the way here, and we bought a farm in the Buenos Aires region of El Salvador. On the finca, we train the local farmers and give them new perspectives on growing specialty coffee. Our motivation: every farmer should benefit equally. We want to create a community that grows and learns together. You can already discover the first project coffees in our online shop. Drinking coffee and doing something good at the same time is also a big part of our motivation.
The founding
In 2010 the time had come! After months of preparation, the Wildkaffee Roastery was founded. The small coffee roastery was located in a small backyard in Partenkirchen. In a garage-like building, next to the coffee warehouse and the actual roastery, there was also a small café where you could buy and try the freshly roasted coffee. Word quickly got around that there was something completely new in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and that the coffee there tasted particularly good. Thanks to the positive word of mouth, the courtyard gradually became too small. The infrastructure for a green coffee warehouse and roastery was simply no longer sufficient.
How did the name Wildkaffee come about?
Leonhard and Stefanie were initially very undecided when choosing the name. The surname Wild should definitely be included, but coffee roastery Wild, Wild's coffee roastery or even coffee roastery Garmisch-Partenkirchen simply sounded too boring to them. But then the idea came: Wildkaffee roastery! A cool combination that also creates a small connection to the origins of coffee - Ethiopia. In Ethiopia there are numerous undiscovered varieties that are generally referred to as wild coffee.
The roastery moves to Farchant
In order to be able to devote more time to the passion for processing the highest quality green coffee, the roastery had to be expanded. Suitable premises were found for this in the neighboring village of Farchant. The larger rooms not only made the delivery of green coffee much more convenient. The spatial separation between the roastery and the café also ensured that the focus could be even more specifically on roasting the coffee, tastings, sample roasts and mutual exchange. The Wildkaffee roastery is still located in Farchant today. Over the years, the roastery and the company have been steadily expanded. Today, the Wildkaffee roastery has nine employees.
The café in Garmisch-Partenkirchen
But it wasn't just the roastery that was slowly but surely becoming too small. The café was also slowly but surely being expanded. The location, still in the Partenkirchen backyard, was not entirely ideal. In 2014, during the construction of a new local bank, the opportunity arose to open a completely new café in the center of the Garmisch district, not far from the train station. This opportunity was seized and the Café Wildkaffee was created - a stylish, urban-style café in the middle of a busy part of the market town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. In addition to the coffee specialties from the Wildkaffee roastery, the café also offers cakes, snacks and sandwiches. In 2018, the café was handed over to long-time employee Benny Fleischhacker so that he could concentrate fully on processing the finest specialty coffees.