Even though you only set foot in this country very recently, chances are you have already been exposed to this very acute aspect of culture – Turkish coffee and the mysterious fortune telling by reading the remains or residual coffee at the cup.
Little do we know is that Turkish coffee drinking is actually a tradition with deep root and history.
Tasseography (Kahve Fali), is a divination or fortune telling methods that interprets patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediments. "Tasse" is a French word for cups, "graphy" means the "study of".
The earliest documented coffee drinking was from Yemen in the 15th century, where it was later on spread through to Cairo and Mecca in the 16th century. The first coffee house was opened in Istanbul in year 1640, documented by the Ottoman Chronicler Ibrahim Pecevi. While it is best to be served with Turkish delights (Lokum) or pistachios, the potential of having the gateway into future is unquestionably the most attractive trait of it. With a good diviner ("Diviner" is the term used for a talented cup reader), the gastronomical experience can easily be augmented to a Back-to-the-future experience.
Coffee cup reading is sometimes a social event – I have personally experienced that after having lunch with a group of zealous locals, where it ends up with a good cup of Turkish coffee (served according to different taste: Sweetened, moderately sweetened, or non-sweetened), there often is a session of mutual reading. If you wish to bond well with the locals, I'm sure instead of "Sorry, I really have no idea", if you make an effort to chip in one or two comments by your imagination and inspiration, you will see this little "skill" carry you very far.
Here is how it is done: after having finished your coffee, swirl the cup few times in swift motion, and then position it upside down by turning the cup with the saucer in the direction towards yourself. Once the cup is completely cooled down (which means the liquid is properly drained and the remains are solidly set), you are set to go! Then, the question is: "What are we looking for? And what do they mean?"
First of all you hold the cup by the handle. Turn it so that the handle is on the top of the cup, and that you can read the cup from the present to future by starting along the handle in a clockwise direction. The Gutenberg Project[i] provides a rather exhaustive list of symbol and its interpretation but the following is a glimpse of the most used interpretations I have encountered:
- Flying birds – good news to arrive
- Apple – a sign of achievement, good fortune, long life
- Boat – a trip to be expected from a friend from afar
- Circle(s) – the coffee drinker may expect to receive a sum of money of present
- Kite – a sign of lengthy voyage
- Triangles – a sign of good luck and unexpected legacies
- Ladder / spaced lines – a sign for travels (long lines symbolic to long travel)
- Peacock – happy marriage
The list goes on forever, for deeper investigation please refer to the Gutenberg project for a more exhaustive list.
Why am I so excessively interested in this interesting culture? It goes back to my first visit to a Café here in Ankara where a woman voluntarily approached me and offered to read my coffee cup. I did not order a coffee actually; I was not going to drink one. Upon her offer to read my cup, I had one and was wondering what she was going to say.
She mesmerized me by giving me delicate detail of occasions happened in my life in the past, and even was spelling out part of the name of people involved. She recounted successfully the challenges I faced at that time and told me her interpretation of the result (which, to my very surprise, was very much coherent with the facts afterwards)! So my fellow aliens, be ready for such shocks in Turkey!
Until the next issue, enjoy your cup of coffee, whether you are interested to read, or to be read at the end, you are acquainted with the basics of it now.
[i] For more information, please visit e-book online http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18241/18241-h/18241-h.htm#3
