Completed your espresso? Now, swirl the cup round, flip it the wrong way up onto the saucer, and make a want.
This isn’t how I’d drink my espresso at house, however I’m at present on the rooftop terrace of a restaurant in Istanbul’s Karakoy neighbourhood.
The lady who served me my morning jolt of caffeine is about to practise the traditional Turkish artwork of Kahve Fali, or tasseography: telling my fortune from the muddy, leftover grounds.
Break up throughout Europe and Asia, Istanbul acts as a gathering level for each previous and new cultures.
I’ve come right here as, after the previous two chaotic years, like many, I’m intrigued about what the long run would possibly maintain.
Can Turkish tasseography assist information me via 2022?
My server, the appropriately named Destina, works at Image Cafe, a department of 4 mystic espresso spots all through the town, and for 120 Turkish lira (£6.39), she ‘reads’ the remnants to foretell what’s forward.
Kahve fali began round 1540, not lengthy after the Ottomans launched espresso to Turkey.
Fortune tellers search for patterns, symbols and icons left imprinted within the sediment across the cup: a fish is alleged to symbolise a job promotion, a chook is an efficient omen, a flower signifies happiness to return.
My first query, in fact, is what’s in retailer for humanity this yr? Will all of us be caught at house once more?
Whereas Destina, like all tasseographers, can solely make predictions for a person, she says optimistically: ‘I see travels intensifying once more and a brand new period will start by which the troubled interval might be eliminated.’
Properly, that’s a reduction.
She then will get extra particular and tells me she sees nice profession success for me in April however provides: ‘Individuals might be envious of this so be careful for destructive power.’
She additionally says she sees one other little one in my life, born this yr. Once I inform her I’ve acquired sufficient children already, she smiles: ‘Then you could be very cautious when you don’t need one other!’
Somewhat spooked, I leap continents over to Asia (through a picturesque ferry experience) to the Kadiköy-Moda district. Right here, streets throng with hipster bars and classy homeware outlets, however tucked amongst them is Odun Cafe (Serasker Cad. No. 15a).
Proprietor Tarik tells me he’s spent six years learning astrology and tasseography, and that he’s seen an enormous uplift in folks in search of steerage via espresso because the pandemic.
Throughout my studying (150 Turkish lira/£7.99), he says: ‘I see a transfer overseas… are you able to see the letter I, V or T right here? Does this imply something to you?’
I inform him I used to be wanting into transferring to Ibiza, pre-lockdown.
‘This tells me it’s on the playing cards for you,’ he claims. ‘And if not a transfer, then 2022 will contain a lot of worldwide journey.’
As a journey journalist caught at house for 2 years, I definitely hope so.
Whereas extra folks than ever in Turkey had been turning to an historic tradition to assist information them via this unprecedented period, lockdown meant it was tougher to entry.
Which is the place entrepreneur Sertaç Taşdelen and his new on-line coffee-reading app, Faladdin, excelled – like Istanbul itself, it’s the right mixture of old-meets-new. You snap an image of your empty espresso cup, add it, and obtain a full studying again inside ten minutes.
‘We noticed a 20% rise in folks getting readings throughout the pandemic, and our app has even accomplished 1.2 million readings in at some point,’ Sertaç tells me.
‘Espresso studying has all the time been widespread right here however with the pandemic, it grew to become extra cell and technological.’
I spend the remainder of my journey turning my completed espresso cup the wrong way up in eating places like Pandeli within the Grand Bazaar, and importing an image of it to Faladdin to get the total breadth of tasseographic tradition.
It tells me to look out for a buddy who isn't sincere but there’s additionally a bat image – somebody who will assist me expertise new beginnings, apparently.
Will I've nice profession success this yr? Or one other child? I suppose I’ll must revisit all of the predictions in 2023…
British Airways flies from London Heathrow to Istanbul from £62 one-way, ba.com. Rooms at The Keep, Istanbul, from £159pn, thestay.com.tr.
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