GO GO JAVA GOGO!

Holiday Newsletter

2007-11-29T11:57:00.000-06:00

Here is the text of our latest e-Newsletter. If you'd like to receive it, just go to www.javagogokc.com and sign up!

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Happy Holidays!!!
E-Newsletter #3
November 2007
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Greetings!

Hard to believe that Thanksgiving has already come and gone. But it has. We hope you had a great time. There was certainly a lot going on and a lot to enjoy this weekend--great food, lots of good family time, and some great football! Whatever you did, we hope you had a great time!

So now we're back, and we're ready for the Holiday season. We have several exciting things to tell you about in this Holiday edition of the newsletter, so let's get to it!

All our best!
Josh & Amy
Owners, JAVA GOGO

In this issue
1. Give the gift of JAVA GOGO!

2. Holiday Signature Drinks - Triple Play

3. Holiday Savings - Free Money!

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1. Give the gift of JAVA GOGO!
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Got coffee lovers on your holiday gift list? Well, then what could be better than giving them a JAVA GOGO gift this year? Here are just a few great gift ideas:

i) JAVA GOGO gift cards - Everyone loves getting a gift card from their favorite store, and ours are available in any denomination. So whether they like lattes, frappes, mochas, or just good old drip coffee, this is the perfect gift. Just ask your barista to set one up for you!

ii) JAVA GOGO coffee - The coffee lover in your life will love having JAVA GOGO brewing in their home. Our House Blend, La Bella Vita Espresso and other select single origin coffees will be available. Buy it in whole bean or ask us to grind it for you! Prices start at $8.95 per bag.

iii) JAVA GOGO merchandise - Our travel mugs have been extremely popular since we introduced them last month. And in December, we will roll out new JAVA GOGO caps and visors, just like the ones your barista wears! These make great gifts, and as usual, it's easy to pick one up right at the drivethru window. Travel mugs are $14.95 and hats and visors will be $19.95.

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2. Holiday Signature Drinks - Triple Play
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Usually we have one drink special, but for the holidays, would that be good enough? NO WAY! Now when you swing through the drivethru, you'll see that we're featuring three holiday-themed specials that will warm you up and put you in the spirit.

In the Egg Nog Latte, we use 2/3 real egg nog and 1/3 milk for a latte that will make you think you're already at your holiday party.

You'll imagine you're snuggled up in front of the fireplace on Christmas Eve with our Caramel Apple Cider, steamed fresh for you with real apple cider and decadent caramel. What a treat!

And it'll feel like it's already time to open the presents when you sip our yummy Peppermint Mocha. With the Torani peppermint syrup, visions of candy canes will dance in your head....

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3. Holiday Savings - Free Money!
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The holidays are a season of giving. You give gifts, you give donations to charity, you give your time to friends and family. But what do you get in return? Well, at JAVA GOGO, we think you deserve to receive as well. So we're doing some giving.

Exclusively for you, our loyal newsletter readers, we want to give you a dollar every time you come by. So from now until December 8, just swing through the drivethru and make your purchase, and get a dollar back. It's that simple. There's no limit to the number of times you come through, so come early and often!

Here are the ground rules:
• Minimum $2.50 purchase
• One dollar per vehicle, per trip
• Must mention "Holiday Dollars" to receive

That's it! Happy Holidays! See you at the drivethru.

El Salvador Finca Los Planes

2007-11-14T10:26:00.000-06:00

Just started serving a new featured drip coffee this week. The Finca Los Planes from El Salvador is one of the better coffees I've tasted lately. It is a lighter roast with distinct fruit flavors in the finish and some hints of chocolate. I love it. So much so in fact that we're going to offer it for sale by the 12-ounce bag. And I'm personally planning on using it to stuff stockings when the holidays get closer.....

So next time you come through the drivethru, try a cup. And if you like it, pick some up to take home or to give as a gift. Java-licious........

New York Marathon

2007-11-09T10:54:00.000-06:00

Ok, so this is definitely not coffee-related, but I thought I would blog on my experence in NYC this past weekend.

I had the privilege of running in my second New York marathon on Sunday (seventh marathon overall). And it was an amazing experience. First off, I am an unabashed New York lover. I lived there from 1994-97, and for me it's always fun to go back. But no matter how you feel about New York and New Yorkers, the city really understands how to pull off a world class event, and the marathon is no exception. Everything about this event was expertly orchestrated, from the Expo, to the shuttles to the start, to the starting "village", to the aid stations, to the water stops. Of the 38,000 runners, almost half were international, so they had everything organized in multiple languages even. Really impressive.

As for this particular day, it was a picture perfect day for a marathon. It was 52 and sunny at the start and about 58 and cloudy by the time of the finish. Not too hot, not too cold, just right! I took the Staten Island ferry to the start and saw Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty on my way there. Then my shuttle bus took me to the Start Village at Fort Wadsworth, where I met up with my buddy Greg. Greg and I crossed the start line about 6 minutes after the gun--not bad for 38,000 people. The crowd was pretty thick as our adrenaline pulled us up the Verazzano Bridge along with our thousands of new friends. Man, everyone was just buzzing as we crossed the bridge--the weather was perfect, the bridge itself is stunning, and the views were awesome. We came back down into Brooklyn and that's where the real fun began.

Thanks in part to the weather, the crowds were in full force. And these are crowds like I've never experienced anywhere else--it's not even close--they are along almost the entire course, and they are loud and rambunctious throughout. Sunday was Greg's birthday, and he was smart and had a shirt printed that said "Happy 48th Birthday Greg" (I, of course, was not so smart and didn't have my name printed anywhere, but oh well). From the get-go, the crowd was in love with Greg. He didn't just get a cheer here and there, it was non-stop! You would have thought these were his life-long friends or that he'd paid them to cheer him, but men, women and children all yelled out birthday wishes. And Greg just about wore himself out yelling back thank-you's. It was priceless! And of course it put a big spring in his step, so we were moving right along. It was just fantastic. Miles 3-13 are in Brooklyn, and you really see and feel the changes as you move from neighborhood to neighborhood, from predominantly Hispanic, to predom. Greek, to predom. African-American, to predom Hasidic Jewish. But all were vocal. After 2 quick miles in Queens, we crossed the Queensborough Bridge into Manhattan.

Greg and I got separated around mile 16, which is too bad because mile 16 is where you cross into Manhattan, and I really would have loved to hear the crowd's reaction to him on 1st Avenue. But anyway, they were rampant, and I was feeling good. Generally speaking when I'm feeling good I feed off the crowd, and when I'm feeling bad, they drive me nuts. That day, I felt great, so I they really gave me an awesome lift. About 8 miles later, I had crossed into the Bronx and back into Manhattan. Soon I was running along Central Park. Around mile 23 is a hill that gives the Broadway stretch of the Hospital Hill Half-Marathon in KC a run for its money, but I made it up that and into the park, where the crowd gets thicker and louder and rowdier. At Mile 24, I passed the 3:30 pacer and I didn't look back. I shattered my old PR and finished in 3:28:25. And for the first time ever I did a negative split--my second 1/2 marathon was 1 minute faster than my first!

An awesome day! YES!

Pumpkin Spice Latte

2007-10-25T11:55:00.000-05:00

Have you tried our pumpkin spice latte yet? If not, you should. It is truly exceptional and is just the thing for the fabulous fall weather! Oh, and if the latte is not enough for you we also have pumpkin chip muffins and pumpkin spice biscotti. Enjoy...............

JAVA GOGO is Proud to Support KS Business, Harvest Lark

2007-09-24T14:52:00.001-05:00

For those of you who don't know, JAVA GOGO has long carried all-natural cereal bars made by Harvest Lark, a Chapman Kansas farm-based company. We carry Coco-Espresso, Peanut Butter, and everyone's favorite, Cranberry Pecan. These make a great healthy breakfast, to go along with your coffee or latte.

There was just a phenomenal feature on Harvest Lark in the KC Star food section, so if you missed it, here is a link. JAVA GOGO is mentioned in the article as a place where you can get Harvest Lark here in town. We sell them for $1.65, and we give a 10% discount if you want to buy a whole box of 10 bars.

As a Kansas City small business, we are proud to do business with local companies such as Harvest Lark. Among others, our coffee provider is PT's Coffee, based in Topeka, and we buy our milk from Roberts Dairy, who get milk from Kansas and Missouri farmers. A JAVA GOGO salute to you all!

Goodbye & Hello!

2007-08-17T15:12:00.000-05:00

We say goodbye this week to one of our baristas, Thomas. Thomas has been with us a full year and leaves us to move to Boston and enroll in the Berklee School of Music. Thomas reports that he plans to continue on as a barista in Boston while in school. Good luck, Thomas, we'll miss you here in KC.

As Thomas heads East, we have a new addition joining the JAVA GOGO Team. Sami is an experienced barista who has worked in coffeehouses here in town, as well as in Dublin, Ireland. Look for her bio soon on the JAVA GOGO website. Welcome, Sami!

Speaking of TV

2007-07-28T14:01:00.000-05:00

Looking forward to HBO's Hard Knocks, which will feature YOUR Kansas City Chiefs at training camp. This camp has no shortage of dramatic stories, from a quarterback competition, to LJ's holdout, to Jared Allen's suspension, to all the new rookies. Plus Herman Edwards is the human sound bite! But nothing should be more riveting to watch unfold than the story of the ghost known as Priest Holmes. Priest shocked the football world when he announced that he is reporting to camp almost two years after sustaining what we all assumed would be a career-ending hit from roid-crazed San Diego linebacker Shawn Merriman.

All Chiefs fans will surely be hoping that Priest has some of that magic left. The guy was once a touchdown-o-matic. He ran around those pulling linemen, caught balls out of the backfield, and generally found ways to dance into the end zone. Whether or not Priest showing up is a contract negotiating gimmick for Carl Peterson to get LJ under contract, this should be entertaining.....

Damages

2007-07-28T13:53:00.000-05:00

GOGO Girl and I just checked out the new FX show Damages this week. Scary rabit-boiler Glenn Close plays a cut-throat litigation attorney and she is cold as ice. She makes Meryl Streep's character in Devil Wears Prada look like a sissy. Plot involves a new associate she hires into her firm just so that she can get to a key witness in her case. The rich guy she is trying to destroy is played smashingly by Ted Danson. All-in-all, worth checking out. But it's got nothing on my current fave dramas The Wire and The Shield.

Raz-Mo-Taz

2007-07-23T16:20:00.000-05:00

We've been busy once again in the JAVA GOGO recipe kitchen. In case you haven't heard, we introduced a new special drink called the Raz-Mo-Taz. It is a Raspberry Mocha Frappe, and it is delicious! We take our Mocha Frappe, tone down the chocolate just a touch and add some wonderful pureed raspberry. It's just what you need to cool down, yet get a little caffeinated jolt! Come give it a try....

What I'm drinking this summer

2007-07-10T14:37:00.000-05:00

Now that summer is on us hot and heavy, people want to know what they should get to beat the heat. JAVA GOGO has lots of good iced drinks, not to mention frappes, fruit smoothies and italian sodas. But as for me, after I've had a hot cup of our house blend in the A.M., I will go for an iced latte with 1/2 pack of sugar in the afternoon. It's light, refreshing and icey cold, plus it packs the punch of three shots of espresso! I would encourage all of you to give it a try. Or ask the baristas what they are drinking. They all have outstanding palates.

P.S. After hours, GOGO Girl and I have been known to sit on the side porch with a Boulevard Wheat with a lemon wedge. It's one of my favorite Kansas City pastimes.....

Happy 4th of July!

2007-07-05T10:52:00.000-05:00

We hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July!

GOGO Girl and I took young Eli to our neighborhood 4th of July festivities and he had a blast..... no pun intended. He rode in his red wagon for the parade, ate about a pound of watermelon and cruised around with all the other neighborhood kids. Here he is playing in a holiday bucket of water (remember when that's all it took to amuse you?) Last night, he slept like a log......

JAVA GOGO salutes Jack Miller Subaru

2007-06-30T13:45:00.001-05:00

A big GOGO-thanks to Larry Harris down at Jack Miller Subaru. Larry got 8 fresh pots of coffee from us this morning to send off the Jack Miller Subaru Cycling team on their ride today. Sounds like a pretty good sponsor to me!

On a more personal note, GOGO girl and I are both Suby-drivers, and we purchased one of our vehicles at Jack Miller. They are really great people!

In with the new at VML!

2006-12-14T20:27:00.000-06:00

Hey, our great customers at VML included a profile of JAVA GOGO in their company e-newsletter - thanks VML, we're glad to serve you!

Cancun Fast and Pronto is Delicious and Good

2006-12-14T20:05:00.000-06:00

Here at JAVA GOGO you know we love to try new KC restaurants. We found a gem a couple weeks ago on a Sunday morning when we were strolling around midtown with Little Duder. We were heading to the Broadway (hey, we love great coffee and can't always drink our own!) and then to Mill Creek Park to see the latest art installation. The whole enterprise took so much time that by the time we were heading home we were really hungry ... and in Westport on a Sunday. To our delight, we strolled past a new place: Cancun Fast and Pronto. Don't worry about the name -- or the mismatched URL -- there are many reasons you should try it:

It's in a former gas station: seriously, who can argue with anything in a former gas station? NO ONE should even try arguing with fomer gas station location deal. Major style points
It's really good: Hey, for midtown Mexican, we love Rudy's as much as the next person, but the Cancun Fast and Pronto is fresh and delicious, authentic and lovely
It's locally-owned: Please don't eat at Chili's in Westport! If you see a Chili's ad and feel the urge, your Pavlovian response should be to go to Cancun Fast and Pronto and order the fish tacos without delay!

Address: Pennsylvania, across from the Westport Beach Club. And a rare Westport bonus: EASY PARKING!

Cinnamintality

2006-11-14T10:04:00.000-06:00

The barista labs are back in action for the JAVA GOGO winter drink: the CinnaMint Swirl Latte.

Early this morning I got an urgent text message from our chief barista: incoming special beverage. She sped over from the shop to drop one off at my desk for the official taste test.

The verdict: Delicious! A chocolate-y candy cane of a drink.

I've been humming Perry Como all morning.

Italian for Biscuit

2006-11-08T08:25:00.000-06:00

The JAVA GOGO team is always looking for great foodstuffs to offer alongside the beverages. In fact, we do taste tests to determine what makes it on the menu. We have eaten far more than our fair share of muffins, doughnut, assorted pastries, scones, breakfast sandwiches and energy bars in the last year. The work is grueling.

At one of our tasting sessions last summer, biscotti was on the menu. I came to the table completely convinced that biscotti was a bottom-of-the-barrel foodstuff, reserved for desperate souls who enjoy eating hard pretzels and say things like, "Are you hungry? Eat an apple."

I can admit, I was wrong. So wrong in fact, that my 20oz latte has a new friend every morning - a pumpkin spice biscotto. Dang. Good biscotti is GOOD, and this locally-made biscuit is on the menu. But don't look for hard pretzels anytime soon.

2006-11-06T17:14:00.000-06:00

We couldn't be happier to be serving up the bold brews and savory sandwiches at VML, one of the world's finest marketing companies.

Many people have asked us, are there any differences between the typical drive-thru customer and the typical VML customer? Well, yes. We will explore this question in future posts ...

A kinder, gentler Kona

2006-11-05T21:32:00.000-06:00

Though we're native landlubbers, the gogoguy and I know our fresh fish. And there are few things we like more than trying new locally-owned restaurants. Actually, we really, really like just going to Pot Pie over and over again but remind ourselves to keep branching out so we don't get tired of P.P.

Nara, the gogoguy informs me, was the capital of Japan before Kyoto was ... I quickly caught on to this game and informed him that Tokyo is now the capital of Japan. With that bit of Japanese history out of the way, we loaded up the little duder in his car seat and headed out to present-day Nara in the Crossroads District.

The hostesses seemed terrified by the seating challenge our carseat presented. All we wanted was to be seated at a 3- or 4-top. Eventually we got there, but it turns out - and this is one of those 'first times for everything' - that at a sushi restaurant, they don't serve sushi in the dining room. At night. On weekends. With a full moon. Before a Chiefs game. Honestly, I didn't catch all of the rules about sushi serving at Nara, but we were quickly transferred to the sushi bar, which it turns out, is a great place to sit with a baby in a carseat.

What we ate: yakitori (OK), bamboo carrot rice (v. good), a spicy noodle dish with chicken, pineapple and possibly mango (also good - and the waiter says, getting even better.) For sushi we got the salmon, hamachi, tuna and unagi. All really pretty good, though the portions were definitely KC-sized. Good for beef, not so good for raw fish.

We try not to compare sushi restaurants in KC with sushi restaurants in other cities, so here goes on Nara: kinder and gentler staff than Kona but the same sort of pan-Asian menu, more "thumpy-thumpy" than Sushi House, less authentic than Jun's. Though Nara does have real wasabi on the menu and the best sake menu in town. And it's conveniently located close to our house.

Will we go back to Nara? A definite maybe. We're curious to try it in a few months. The staff was unusually friendly and knowledgeable. We liked that. Little duder liked the din of the place and stayed quite content with his binky the whole time, staring at the fish in the cooler in front of us. Now that we know a sushi bar is a convenient place for a baby in a carseat, I think we'll go to Jun's next weekend.

Warming Up

2006-11-05T21:21:00.000-06:00

There's something really nice about getting a 20 oz latte when fall starts to set in, here in KC. Maybe it's that like so many foodstuffs in KC, a little excess is a-ok. Some would say that a 20 oz latte is a little heavy on the milk. Those are probably the same people who would look sideways at eating a grilled chicken sandwich with fries at Jerry's Woodsweather (or is it Woodswether?) Cafe in the West Bottoms.

I gave up my ban on chicken-eating for the chicken sandwich at Jerry's. Delicious. Now if I could only get there from the office while my latte was hot, I could enjoy all that comfort food with my favorite beverage.

JAVA GOGO for your office meeting?

2006-06-14T11:21:00.000-05:00

Looking for refreshments for a morning meeting? Did you know that JAVA GOGO can provide you with full pots of our GOGO blend, GOGO decaf, or Coffee of the Day? Just swing through the drivethru and let us know how much you need, and we'll brew it right up, and provide you with fresh coffee in disposable airpots, plus cups, cream, sugar and everything else you'll need to perk everyone up! Or call us in advance at 816-421-JAVA and we can get it ready for you by the time you get here.

Also, if you know at least one day in advance, we can provide an assortment of our muffins or cookies as well. Got questions? E-mail josh@javagogokc.com.

New Hours at JAVA GOGO

2006-06-14T11:20:00.000-05:00

By popular demand, we are staying open a little later on Saturday and shifting our hours on Sunday. Please note that now we are open 7 AM - 5 PM Saturday and 8 AM - 12 PM Sunday.

Introducing Baby Eli

2006-06-14T11:15:00.000-05:00

Amy and I are the proud new parents of Eli Harrison Winger Sitzer, born on June 6 at 11:33 am. He weighed in at 8lbs, 12 oz and 20 1/4 inches long.

Mom and Baby are doing great, and Dad is helping the best he can. Good thing we have ready access to lots of coffee.....

The NBA in KC

2006-05-16T21:40:00.000-05:00

With the Sprint Center in progress, I personally think it is imperative that Kansas City get an NBA team (whether or not we also get an NHL team). This town is already crazy for college basketball, especially KU, but also MU and KSU. So the city is full of good, educated basketball fans who will love the NBA. It's just a matter of getting used to the style of play. But watching the Pistons-Cavs playoff matchup last night, I know that KC fans would LOVE having one of those teams represent us. KC would really get behind them.

I've heard critics talk about how they don't play defense in the NBA, or how the regular season doesn't matter. But I would argue that they have have not watched the NBA game closely enough. The skills that these athletes bring to the court every night is just thrilling. And there's no denying that having an NBA team makes your city "big league." So step up KC, push for an NBA team to come to town. Do I hear the KC Sonics?

JAVA GOGO is NOT a franchise

2006-04-22T17:21:00.000-05:00

In the few weeks we've been open, many of you have asked us if JAVA GOGO is part of a chain or a franchise. The answer is no. JAVA GOGO is a brand new Kansas City business. The owners Amy and Josh live here about 15 minutes from the shop.

Amy and Josh first experienced drivethru coffee in (of all places) Fargo ND. We were so excited to be able to grab coffee without having to get out into the North Dakota elements (brrrr). Then Josh took a trip to southwestern Oregon where he experienced drivethru coffee nirvana--there were coffee drivethrus EVERYWHERE. He was convinced that this would work great in Kansas City. So he came back and worked with Amy to create JAVA GOGO.

NKC Business Council Trade Show

2006-04-22T17:12:00.000-05:00

Thursday April 20 we participated in the trade show put on by the North Kansas City Business Council. It was a great event, and we got to meet lots of our NKC neighboring businesses. What a cool, thriving community we have! When people came to our booth, we told them the JAVA GOGO story and gave them coupons for a free drink of their choice--since then a bunch of them have already come to check us out!

One of our favorite visitors to the booth was the Northtown Hornet--here she is with Amy (who is expecting our first baby this June).