You perform a coffee fortune by using Greek or Turkish style briki/ibrik coffee. This is a super fine grind boiled in a small long-handled pot. After consuming the coffee, you prepare the cup and then turn it upside down. You then turn it right side up and observe the images within the cup.
Although this is a simplified explanation, reading coffee fortunes is a little more complicated than this. The process of making, drinking and preparing the coffee isn’t difficult. But, you must have a keen eye and a good command of symbology in order to understand what you’re looking at.
Coffee Fortune Overview
- What Is Coffee Fortune Telling & From Where Does Come?
- Step 1: Brew Greek or Turkish Coffee
- Step 2: Drink the Coffee
- Step 3: Prepare the Cup
- Step 4: Read the Grounds
- Step 5: Understanding the Images & Symbols
What Is Coffee Fortune Telling & From Where Does Come?
Tasseomancy (or tasseography) is the art of reading spent coffee grinds in a demitasse cup. This is an old and ancient practice that stems from China but it has a stronghold in Greek, Turkish, Arabic, Romanian and other such eastern bloc cultures.
Greeks Do It Best
The Greeks have developed a solid method for doing this and most of the process here comes from their way of kafemandeia, or reading coffee grinds. The fortune teller’s coffee reading, or kafetzou, is the belief that the drinker’s mental, physical and emotional states affect the shapes formed in the grinds.
These symbols, images and shapes reveal something about the drinker with potential future outcomes. Older Greek women with a penchant for superstition echoes their earth-worshipping past when the Olympian gods reigned supreme.
Turkish Connections
However, the process of reading coffee grinds connects to their enslavement during the Ottoman Empire of Turkey. There are people roaming the earth today who still do coffee grind readings and they learned it from generations of women before them.
Step 1: Brew Greek of Turkish Coffee
Of course, you can’t perform a coffee fortune reading unless you have coffee first. So, you’ll have to brew it in the traditional Greek or Turkish style (both are basically the same with slight variations). Use the recipe below.
Items You’ll Need
- Ibrik (Turkish) or Briki (Greek) or other long-handled pourer big enough for one cup of coffee
- Teaspoon (for measuring)
- Stove
- Demitasse Cup(s)
- Saucer for the Cup(s) or a Napkin
- Small Spoon
Ingredients
- Cold Water
- Greek Coffee Grounds (super fine grind, finer than espresso)
- Sugar & Cream (optional)
Instructions
- Measure out the water according to how many cups of coffee you want to make by pouring it into your demitasse cup and pour it into the briki.
- Add two teaspoons of coffee grounds per cup of water along with sugar, if using. Metrios, or medium, is one teaspoon of sugar. Glykos, or sweet, is two teaspoons.
- Stir all the contents together with your small spoon after adding the sugar.
- Put the briki on the stove set to medium heat and warm until it all begins to bubble up.
- Take it off the heat, let it settle and place the briki back down onto the heat, allowing it to bubble up again. Doing this controls the contents from boiling over.
- Then pour everything into your demitasse cup, including milk/cream if using, and allow the grounds to fully settle to the bottom, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Step 2: Drink the Coffee
As you wait for the grounds to settle, clear your mind and focus on a question you want to know. Stay calm and keep an open mind while focusing on your question. Sip in a leisurely but deliberate way while maintaining a sense of peace.
Step 3: Prepare the Cup
After you’ve drunk the coffee, it’s time to prepare the cup. There will be extra liquid left floating on top of the grounds, you have to get rid of this without losing too many grounds. Hold the cup on its side over the kitchen sink.
Turn the cup three times clockwise to coat the sides of the cup while ridding of excess sludge. Pour this out from the side of the cup’s handle. Then, overturn the cup onto your saucer or a napkin and wait for a few minutes so that the grounds slightly dry.
Step 4: Read the Grounds
Hold your cup upright with the handle away from you. Go around the rim of the cup from left to right, top to bottom. The top half represents the present while the bottom half represents the past. The whole circumference of the cup indicates a whole year.
But, some people say the bottom of the cup is indicative of the person’s mind or heart. Then the lower third indicates the past which relates to what’s indicated on the bottom and how this is manifesting in the present via the middle third. The top third is the future.
What will determine the method is the overall layout of the grounds and where they sit in the cup. For instance, if the top is heavy with grinds, this will be more important than the bottom.
Step 5: Understanding the Images & Symbols
Only identify the images you can pick out, like a Rorschach test. You might see an animal, a sick person, clouds, hearts, spirals, linked circles or a dove. You may even identify male and female figures along with roads, flowers or letters.
The interpretation here will heavily rely on personal meaning. For instance, someone who sees a cloud may indicate this as dreams and wishes whereas another person may interpret it as storms coming into the querent’s life.
The essential difference is in how dark the grounds appear in the cup. The darker the image, the more negative it will be and the lighter the symbol, the more positive the outcome. For a thorough and complete understanding, get the book “Fortune in a Coffee Cup: Divination with Coffee Grounds” by Sophia.
Hi, I’m Jen Williams, chief editor and writer for ThirstPerk.com.
I’ve been drinking coffee and tea for most of my life, but it wasn’t until I started working at Thirstperk.com that I became an expert on the subject. I’m a total caffeine addict who has spent hours upon hours reading about and experimenting with the different types of coffees out there in my search to find the perfect cup of joe.
I’ve been a tea lover for as long as I can remember as well. I grew up in a house with a mom who loved to drink herbal tea, and I think that’s where my love for tea first began. These days, I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting teas to try, and I love experimenting with different brewing methods and flavoring combinations.
