Author: NY Weekly Staff

The first thing that millions of people do every morning is brew a pot of coffee. Then comes the big pause, for just a few minutes, as they enjoy that first sip. 

Whether or not you consciously think about it, you and your fellow coffee drinkers, every morning, place a lot of faith in that cup of coffee, which sets the tone for your day.

For millions of coffee drinkers, everything over the course of a day—and we’re talking everything—can turn for better or worse on that first cup of coffee. If the coffee tastes good and you had time to enjoy it, your day is off to a good start—and vice versa.  

 You should never underestimate the power of coffee.

 That’s been Elise Papazian’s strategy since she and her late husband, Scott Pritikin, founded GoCoffeeGo in 2008—the best craft coffee website, which took the multi roaster marketplace by storm. GoCoffeeGo makes rare, exotic and unique roasts available through an easy-to-use website that offers endless types of coffee; from nearly three dozen roasters; along with a range of light-to-dark roasts from seven regions of the world.

 But anyone who is a coffee drinker usually has a particular blend and brand to which they are partial, don’t they?  

So why would any dedicated coffee aficionado switch gears and give GoCoffeeGo a whirl?

Well, there are a lot of reasons. 

 For starters, as with just about everything else these days, we can buy coffee online, and GoCoffeeGo streamlines the process with coffee subscriptions. It’s worth mentioning that GoCoffeeGo was a pioneer in online coffee sales—Elise and Scott launched the first company to sell espresso, single origin coffee and blends from award-winning coffee roasters, around the world, through an online platform. 

More than 14 years later, GoCoffeeGo features more than 1,000 different roasted-to-order coffees, shipped on the same day they are roasted, direct to your kitchen.

GoCoffeeGo also stands out as the best coffee website because Elise goes directly to roasters for their primo beans. She wants passionate coffee brands that travel to origin to track down the best coffees—wherever in the world that may be. 

“At the end of the day, I want to make sure that anybody I bring on my site is getting the good stuff and not just the stuff everybody else is getting,” Elise said. “That’s why we go to Guatemala, or El Salvador, or Costa Rica, Panama—you have your pick of the best.” 

And everyone benefits from mutual respect.

The representatives of the coffee roasting companies who travel to the farms, she said, “will sometimes pay triple, quadruple the fair trade prices for the best coffee.”

Making sure everyone is treated fairly is a priority for Elise, as it benefits everyone in the supply chain, including the most important piece of the supply chain, the consumer. For GoCoffeeGo, good coffee and fair prices means that everyone wins. 

“I bring somebody on because I love their coffee,” Elise said. “I bring on their whole line. Unlike competitors who are willing to promote inferior coffees because they cut a good deal, I’m not trying to squeeze every nickel out of the roaster. When you do that, the roasters are not going to give you the great coffees. They’re going to give you the OK coffees.”

 Elise continued, “As a business owner, you want to make money. But I know what good coffee is. I can’t pretend that bad coffee is good coffee just to make money off it. I can’t pretend that a roaster who’s got a lot of hype, but whose coffee is mediocre, is going to work for GoCoffeeGo.  I won’t take them on my site.”

She added with a laugh, “Not every tuna gets to be Starkist.”

All of this means that roasters have to provide correct answers to a series of questions that Elise asks them. Comparing herself to a bowling ball knocking down pins, Elise asks a lot of questions of anybody who could potentially be supplying coffee to GoCoffeeGo, including:

• How long has the supplier been in business?
• Exactly where are they sourcing their coffee from?
• What kind of coffees do they carry?
• How many coffees do they carry?
• Do they carry a particular coffee just once, or does it become part of their product line?

“After grilling a roaster, if they answer the questions correctly, then we may let them submit coffees,” Elise said. “That’s when the fun begins. We cup many brands together, hiding their names. We love it when an unknown kicks a big brand off the cupping table. We love to break new talent.

“I love it when you can taste the exuberance of youth in an amazing cup by a young roaster, who is now going for their dreams. You can taste that dream. They are unspoiled. They have not sold out.”

Public relations hype might help a company with their marketing. But it doesn’t amount to a hill, forgive the pun, of beans, to Elise. That’s because the only true test of the coffee that GoCoffeeGo sells is how the coffee drinker either enjoys it, or doesn’t enjoy it, when they’re brewing a pot at home in their kitchen.

 “Our customers brew their coffee and ask themselves, ‘Was that a great cup of coffee?’” Elise said. “‘I ordered the beans. I brewed it up at home. There’s no barista or hocus pocus. There’s just me. Was that a great cup of coffee? Yes, it was.’ So they’ll be back. The only thing that’s going to make them come back is the fact that they’re getting an amazing product.”

But before GoCoffeeGo is cleared for takeoff to customers, Elise has two seasoned baristas analyze and assess the coffee. Also, she and her son, Oliver, are both Q graders, who, according to the Coffee Quality Institute, are “Professionals skilled in sensory evaluation of green coffee.” 

Q Graders are employed throughout the coffee industry.

“Through Q Arabica and Q Robusta, the Q Program has become a tool of the trade, bringing specialized skills to coffee professionals around the world,” reads coffeeinstitute.org. “By setting global expectations, CQI helps both buyers and sellers benefit through a shared understanding of quality coffee.” 

As Elise keeps expanding the “Go” in GoCoffeeGo, she has pivoted in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The greatest health crisis in generations dramatically changed just about everything we do as consumers, from renovating our homes because the pandemic lockdown kept us inside for so long, to purchasing everything from gourmet cheese to coffee online.

And this pivot is leaving GoCoffeeGo well-positioned for the coming decades. 

 “We all upped our game at home during the pandemic,” Elise said. “We raised our taste levels. They’ve grown and become more refined, and you can’t go back once you get a taste of something good. So as a result, we’re shopping differently.”

And during the uncertainty that defined the pandemic, a good cup of coffee, that maybe cost a little more than usual for a better blend, likely reinforced a sense of calm and familiarity during a time period that was sorely lacking in both.

 As a result of coffee drinkers treating themselves to a higher grade of coffee during the pandemic, they’ve grown more particular about what they’re drinking each morning. And GoCoffeeGo is responding to this demand.

 “People are becoming more discerning about the type of coffee that they’re drinking,” Elise said. “They’re becoming more educated about coffee. I think coffee prices are going to continue to go up. If they go up, they go up. As long as the quality is good, that’s what matters.”

Visit gocoffeego.com for information.