Do you know the Turkish can read your future in your coffee?

Before coming to Türkiye, I had only heard about fortune-telling but didn’t know anything about it. And to my surprise, whenever I went to grab a cup of Turkish coffee, one of my Turkish colleagues or friend would offer to read my coffee grounds and tell me something about my future by making out the pictures. This is very interesting because you do you see this in every culture. 

In Türkiye and the Balkans, it is a favorite pastime of locals to get your fortune told from leftover coffee grounds. If you are roaming around the streets of Istanbul, for example, you would see a lot of cafés advertising fortune-telling. Even if you are not the superstitious type, I would suggest you try it at least once just for the sake of the culture, because I assure you it is very interesting having your future and past told by a fortune-teller or by a Turkish friend. However, It is not as easy as just swirling coffee grounds around and interpreting what you see. There are specific steps that need to be followed beforehand:

1- Preparing a strong Turkish coffee regardless of whether it is orta şekerli (medium sugar), şekerli (with sugar), or sade (normal).

2- The drinker needs to drink the coffee with intent and should think about the questions they have in their mind as they drink. 

3- When you are done drinking, you put the saucer over the cup (like a lid) and hold them firmly with both hand, make a wish and move it around 3 times in a circular motion. 

4- Finally, you flip the cup and place it on the table to cool down. Once ready, the cup will reveal patterns created by the coffee grounds swirled around. 

Now the interpretations vary from culture to culture and every region has its own symbolic meanings related to images, numbers, and letters, so you might get a different reading from every different person. Still, they are all generally talking about wealth, love, friendships, wedding, etc. However, all these steps are crucial to be followed if you want to have a good reading.

Have you ever gotten your future told in your coffee?