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Founder, Managing Director

Benjamin Hohlmann

Benjamin Hohlmann is the founder and managing director of Kaffeemacher GmbH. With the Kaffeemacher Academy, the specialty Café Frühling in Kleinbasel, and the Kaffee-Mobil, he has set standards in coffee in Basel. In recent years, the Santa Rita coffee farm and our roastery have been added to the Kaffeemacher universe.

As co-managing director of Kaffeemacher:innen, Benjamin is responsible for finance, strategy, and public relations. He also supports companies and projects as a sensory expert and consultant. He is a lecturer in coffee at the ZHAW Wädenswill and a frequent speaker internationally.

Coffee milestones

In 2007, Benjamin took over the management of the largest Swiss coffee house, unternehmen mitte .
He has been an authorized SCA trainer since March 2012.
In autumn 2012, he successfully completed the coffee sensory license at the ZHAW Wädenswil.
In February 2013, he took second place in the Cup Tasting discipline at the Swiss Championships.
In 2014, Schweizer Brewing became champion, 4th in the Barista discipline and 3rd in the Cup Tasting.
He finished 12th at the 2014 World Brewing Championships.
In 2015 he became Swiss runner-up in brewing.
In 2015, Benjamin passed the Q-Grader exam, making him one of the best coffee sensory experts in the world.
In 2016, he coached André Strittmatter, Florian Wicki and Salome Lützelschwab, who achieved first to third place at the Swiss Brewers Cup Championship.
In 2016 he became German Cup Tasters Champion and thus represented Germany at the World Championships in 2017.

At the beginning of 2017, Benjamin and Felix founded Kaffeemacher GmbH and took over the Café Frühling and Kaffee-Akademie projects Benjamin had founded at the company's headquarters in Mitte. Shortly thereafter, we established our own roastery and, a few months later, acquired the Santa Rita coffee farm.

In 2018 and 2019 he was again Swiss Vice Brewers Cup Champion and was beaten by the later World Champion Emi Fukahori and Daniel Hofstetter in Switzerland, who finished 6th at the World Brewers Cup Championship.
In 2018, Benjamin also becomes a Q-Robusta Grader.
In 2018, Benjamin began working as a coffee columnist for bz Nordwestschweiz and Schweiz am Sonntag.
Since 2019, Benjamin has been writing about coffee as a columnist for the gastronomy magazine “Salz & Pfeffer”.

press

  • Coffee as a lesson, Coffee as a lesson, Salt & Pepper
  • Freshly Roasted: The World of Coffee, coop Magazine, December 11, 2017
  • Roasting coffee made easy – thanks to the help of professionals, SRF News, January 4, 2018
  • How the Swiss drink their coffee, SRF Tagesschau, February 2, 2018
  • A Little Coffee Knowledge, Salt & Pepper, September 21, 2017
  • Capsules create competition in the battle for coffee customers, NZZ, February 19, 2018
  • Unrecognized acquaintance, Salt & Pepper, March 27, 2017
  • Master of slurping comes from Basel, barfi.ch, December 11, 2016
  • Unbelievable, but true! Basel restaurateur becomes German Coffee Champion, baizer.ch, November 30, 2016
  • The Lord of the Coffee Beans, baz, October 3, 2014
  • Filter coffee is back, observer, February 6, 2015
  • Benjamin's World Cup preparation, telebasel 7vor7, April 7, 2014
  • Coffee is more than just a source of caffeine, 20 Minutes, June 3, 2014
  • The coffee revolution sweeps Switzerland, 20 Minutes, January 30, 2014
  • Roasting and brewing at the Coffee Academy, Baslerstab, March 26, 2013
  • The Infected, Salt and Pepper, July 2011