I think coffee is one of the world’s great rituals. I’m kind of surprised when Voyager left on its grand tour it didn’t have a burr grinder or at least a packet of instant decaffeinated coffee stashed away on it somewhere, or a few bags of tea if that’s your thing.
I think the aspect that makes coffee particularly interesting to me is that you can have the ritual expand or contract to fit the time for it. I follow people on tiktok who get really pissed off about coffee made from a substandard grinder that crushes and freezes the beans before they even get near the hot water and they do funny things where the pin makes small incisions in the grain. It always sounds like a lot of fun – and the videos are especially good with the built-in ASMR content for preparing the coffee. But take it another way and there’s an enjoyable ritual to make in an instant, tossing in a scoop of the stuff, pouring in water, and then watching as a lazily spinning nimbus forms on top. Ten seconds of day spent contemplating the vast structures of the universe in all their repetitive glory. Again – Voyager missed a move here.
It’s this ritual side of things that makes coffee so well suited for games, and it’s why I know that before long I’ll be choosing Coffee Talk 2 as our game of the week. Alexis felt the game wasn’t quite as consistent as before, but felt it was still a fascinating thing to do, returning to spooky Seattle and its midnight coffee shops. Another kind, thoughtful game that hopefully carries forward the spirit of the series’ late creator, Mohamed Fahmy.