Learn about itLearn onlyLiving tradition
This page describes the practice. There is deliberately no automated reading for it — see the notes below.
Background
UNESCO inscribed Turkish coffee culture and tradition on its Representative List in 2013 and notes that the grounds left in the cup are often used to tell a person’s fortune. Coffee reading is also practised with Arabic coffee and across the Balkans, Greece and Iran.
How it works
After drinking, the grounds left in the cup are read; in the Turkish tradition symbols in the lower half speak of the past and those in the upper half of the future.
Notes and limits
Culture: Coffee reading is a social, hospitable tradition usually done among friends and family; it is best experienced in that setting rather than through an app.
At a glance
- Also called
- Kahve falı, Qirāʾat al-finjān, Fal-e qahveh, Coffee cup reading
- Traditions
- Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Greek, Balkan
- Regions
- Middle East & Persia, Europe
- You need
- Looking at yourself
- Price
- Free