We all love a cup of tea, but your enjoyment needn’t end once you’ve finished drinking it. There could be more to your cup – much more! It could even tell you of your future…
The reading of tea leaves is known as tasseography and has existed as an art for hundreds of years. It is used to predict the fate of the drinker from patterns in their left over tea leaves and sprung up in its modern form in seventeenth-century Europe, soon after the tea routes to China had been established.
In ancient times, the dregs of wine were also read, and coffee grounds can be used too. Tasseography has its own extensive symbology guide, so that you can ascertain that a bird means good news but a bat means false friends!
Its popularity in Europe led to a great many guides on the subject, and English potteries even produced cups specifically for use in readings, though if you want to try it yourself, you should be fine without one.
That being said, wide-mouthed teacups are best to give your future plenty of breathing space. Preferably, they should have sloping sides as well, so the tea leaves can spiral from the present to the future, as well as a plain inner surface, allowing you to focus on the message from the leaves.
You’ll need some loose leaf tea, by the way. Bagged tea is cut too finely to form recognisable shapes, and you won’t end up gleaning anything. Luckily, you can find wonderful loose leaf green tea right here at Wooree, though it doesn’t have to be Korean for you to read it – that just makes it delicious!