Coffee is the highest consumed beverage in developed countries, and it is the second most traded commodity in the world, after oil.  Needless to say, coffee is important to everyone, everywhere.

I’m a massive coffee lover and coffee snob too – and there are two reasons I drink it. One, as a stimulant, especially in the mornings, and two, in social settings. I can enjoy a cuppa with friends, colleagues, family and I’m willing to pay for the privilege, up to $4 a cup (or more depending on where you have it)… but in the middle eastern culture, coffee has a higher purpose too.

The cup of coffee you drink can also hold your fortune.

You see, some people believe that the sediment left at the bottom of your cup can create the patterns which depict your present and future. This style of fortune telling is called Tasseography.

There is a simple process to unlocking your fortune. 1. Drink your Turkish coffee. 2. Once finished place the saucer over the rim, and holding the cup tightly to the saucer, flip it over so that the cup sits face down on the saucer. 3. Let the sediment work its magic, dripping down to create swirls, shapes and patterns. 4. Once the coffee has cooled (roughly fifteen minutes), your fortune is there, temporarily painted along the inside of the coffee cup, and ready to be told.

But not everyone can read the coffee cup. Only some have the spiritual senses and abilities to do so, and not everyone who claims to have the second sight, actually does. There are many fakers who charge for the privilege of having your fortune told, and many others who, in lighthearted social situations, simply ‘have a go’ at making sense of the sediment. Mostly, it’s a bit of fun and not taken too seriously.

Perhaps I sound like a sceptic, but truly, a big part of me believes in all this. Coffee cup reading is so ingrained in my culture. I grew up watching my mum and her friends drink coffee, to then have their coffee cups read. In fact,  I can even name a few instances where, for me personally, the cup really has laid out my fortune in an inexplicably accurate way. Everything from predicting pregnancies to signing contracts, to determining when the right man will come into your life. In fact, when I was two months pregnant with my daughter, and no one yet knew of it. a good friend who has the the second sight, saw it in my sisters cup – told her a baby was on the way.

Whatever your position on coffee and coffee cup reading may be … one key commonality across many cultures is the fascination with being able to see into the future…whether that be in a cup, a deck of cards, in the flames of a fire, or in the lines and groves of your palms.

Tip O The Fez to you…