Oliver Pritikin is not your typical coffee drinker.
Oliver began enjoying coffee drinks in first grade, at age 7. His drink of choice was a mocha with chocolate syrup, chocolate powder, steamed milk, or whipped cream—you could have called it a “graduated hot chocolate.” Then he moved on to cappuccinos.
At the heart of Oliver’s love of coffee was the alluring scent he first caught a whiff of when his parents, Elise Papazian and her late husband, Scott Pritikin, enjoyed their coffee in the morning.
“I’ve always liked the smell of coffee,” said Oliver, an eleventh-grader in high school.
Oliver still likes the smell of coffee. But unlike your typical coffee drinker, he has never been the type of person to wake up desperate for caffeine, stumble into the kitchen and scramble for that first cup.
“It’s usually just like, ‘Do I feel like having a cup of coffee?'” he said. “It hasn’t really become routine.”
When Oliver does enjoy his caffeine, it’s usually a pour-over. He also enjoys espresso.
Whatever Oliver’s drinking—be it a fruity, naturally-processed Ethiopian or a chocolaty Mexican Chiapas—he’s enjoying it with discerning taste buds and an analytical sense of smell. It’s hard not to when your parents launched the first company to sell espresso, single-origin coffee, and blends from award-winning coffee roasters, around the world, through an online platform.
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. Fourteen years after its launch, GoCoffeeGo features more than 1,000 different roasted-to-order coffees, shipped on the same day they are roasted, direct to your kitchen.
This is the world that Oliver has grown up in. And this is the world that has inspired his many interests, from his obsession with studying cheese in the third grade to learning how to make chocolate bars from cacao as a teenager. Oliver also makes his own mozzarella and truffle stuffed Brie.
He collects perfumes, colognes, and candles—the embodiment of his passion for alluring scents that can be traced back to his love of the smell of coffee and all things coffee.
“When I was 9 or 10, I started making my own coffee,” Oliver said. “It was just kind of figuring out how to use the grinder and how to use the scales and all of that—I got into it. I find the act of making coffee kind of fun and intriguing—weighing the beans, grinding it.”
Elise said curiosity inspires Oliver.
“I think it’s curiosity that will drive him to big places,” she said. “Do I think he’ll take over GoCoffeeGo? Who knows? I think he’ll always somehow be involved with that. But he could go into finance. He loves finance; or he could combine the two. It’s hard to know.”
In addition to his early love of coffee, Oliver has long maintained a passion for finance.
In the sixth grade, he would text stock tips to his mother from the halls of his public middle school. Elise took her son’s stock advice, which routinely paid off, and she said, “while that’s not coffee, he’s always been a person who is ahead and involved and interested in different kinds of things.”
In the seventh grade, Oliver took a major step toward formalizing his relationship with coffee when he began the process to become an Arabica Coffee Q Grader, the equivalent of a sommelier for coffee, an unheard-of step for a pre-teen. Q Graders are typically adult coffee professionals whose credentials are achieved by passing 19 intense tests (It was recently changed to 20). This is not kid’s stuff, but as someone who always exceeds expectations, Oliver is now one of the youngest Q graders in the world.
According to the Coffee Quality Institute, Q Graders are “Professionals skilled in sensory evaluation of green coffee.”
Q Graders are employed throughout the coffee industry.
“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.”
Oliver and his mother are both Q Graders, and their certification is just one of many ways in which this pair’s passion for coffee manifests itself.
Elise Papazian is a very proud parent and is especially taken with Oliver’s knack for cuppings—advanced, blind taste tests that rank coffees on aroma, acidity, body, flavor, and aftertaste. What began informally with her son at home—when he was in the sixth grade—evolved into a critical role he now plays in GoCoffeeGo’s roaster selection process.
“He has sunk major roasting companies,” Elise said.
Speaking of her son overall, she added, “He’s amazing. I think he’s going to surpass me.”
Visit GoCoffeeGo.com for more information.
