The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Monday, October 15

Hello, all!

Let’s get to it.

Ramble of the Day

Over the last several years, I’ve become a bit of a coffee snob. This is an interesting development because I never intended to be this, but more importantly, I don’t drink coffee regularly. I’ve had plenty of good cups and actually enjoy drinking it, but I mostly drink it because I crave the taste, since the caffeine does little for me.

For probably those reasons, I have somewhat weird coffee drinking habits. I probably don’t drink it more than once a week regularly, but when I’m breaking routine a little bit, I drink it much more frequently. On probably every vacation I’ve gone on as an adult, I’ll have a cup of coffee every morning with my breakfast. I’m thrilled I have yet to build a caffeine (or coffee, specifically) dependence after spending my college years thinking it was inevitable.

My coffee drinking is probably related to a break in routine because I’m just so curious about coffee in general. I’m very casually interested in other people’s coffee, an interest that is ultimately less about coffee drinking culture and more about the taste of the coffee itself. I’ve recently started to drink it black, and now love to sample black coffee wherever it’s available, especially if it’s free. This is almost never a good decision.

You’d think for a place like the United States, where most adults (and possibly most teenagers) drink coffee, there would be a lot of decent coffee available. Unfortunately, either Americans just like bad coffee (I cannot prove this at the moment) or Americans who supply coffee outside of proper coffee shops, certain brands included, don’t care if the coffee is good or bad. All of the free coffee I’ve tasted since developing this habit, and this includes press box coffee, has not been worth it. The beans are so bad that they are almost always bitter and taste old, and adding milk and sugar never makes it better. It just makes decent milk worse.

Yet, I cannot stop myself from trying every terrible cup of coffee, even though I almost always know it’s going to be bad. My curiosity gets the best of me every time, and perhaps the hope that I will be pleasantly surprised. I never am, though, and am left with a cup of coffee that, at its best, tastes like nothing.

I have a problem.

tl;dr: Coffee, unusual habits, and curiosity.

Links of the Day

Canada and the United States have qualified for next year’s Women’s World Cup in France.

Harry Winks will get the start in England’s Nations League match against Spain on Monday.

Thierry Henry has been named the Monaco manager, which is his first job as a head coach.

The Columbus Crew is set to avoid a relocation to Austin, Texas, as the family that owns the NFL’s Cleveland Browns has joined another family in a bid to buy the club.

Today’s longer read: Marina Hyde on FIFA’s continued poor treatment of the women’s game, as they most recently allowed the Gold Cup final and the Copa América final to be scheduled on the same day as the Women’s World Cup final for The Guardian