Tasseography.org
Learn coffee cup reading step by step: prepare the cup, recognise shapes, compare their positions and explore traditional symbol meanings with illustrated examples.
Selected by Tasseography.org
Photograph your cup. CoffeeTells uses AI to identify the symbols and create a detailed reading on your iPhone. Explore their meanings and ask follow-up questions in the app.
Cup reading is the interpretation of shapes left inside a cup. Coffee cup reading uses settled coffee grounds; tea leaf reading uses loose leaves. Both belong to tasseography, but their preparation and symbol traditions can differ.
Tasseography: meaning, methods & symbolsUse loose-leaf tea or unfiltered coffee that leaves visible residue. Let the drink cool before handling the cup.
Leave a little liquid, swirl gently and drain over a saucer. Tea and coffee traditions use different rituals.
Look for an outline before choosing a meaning. Note its position and nearby marks; leave unclear shapes undecided.
Open the matching symbol entry and check its source notes. Treat an interpretation as a traditional association, not a prediction you can verify from the cup.
For coffee, use unfiltered coffee that leaves fine grounds, such as Turkish-style coffee. Paper-filtered coffee usually leaves too little sediment. Keep only a small amount of liquid, cover the cooled cup with a saucer, turn them together carefully, and let excess liquid drain. There is no universal waiting time: begin when the grounds stop running and their outlines are visible.
| Tea | Coffee | |
|---|---|---|
| Material | Loose tea leaves | Settled coffee grounds |
| Preparation | Drain the remaining tea | Let the grounds settle after turning the cup |
| Our references | Historical books with named sources | Compiled traditional glossary; source limits are stated |
One common convention is shown below. Books and regional traditions differ: cup zones are interpretive guides, not a fixed timetable.
Immediate or present concerns
Matters understood as developing
Underlying or longer-term concerns
The person whose cup is being read
These are hypothetical exercises using illustrative images. For each one, record what you see, where it is, and which source supplies the meaning. The linked coffee entries use our compiled glossary, not a universal or individually documented historical rule.
Look for a stem, crossbar and curved base before calling a mark an anchor. Our glossary associates an anchor near the top with stability or constancy, and a broken or lower anchor with instability. Describe the actual outline and position first; an unclear mark can remain unidentified.
Anchor · Coffee cup reading symbols
Look for two rounded lobes meeting at a lower point. The heart entry associates this shape with love, friendship and romance. A mark beside the handle can be considered alongside the reader's personal context, but it cannot establish another person's feelings or predict a relationship.
Heart · Coffee cup reading symbolsPrinted guides by A Highland Seer and Cicely Kent document tea-leaf methods, symbol lists and example readings. They are historical records of beliefs and practices, not evidence that cup reading predicts the future. The tea archive names these sources so readers can compare interpretations.
Maintained by Tasseography.org. Coffee meanings come from a compiled glossary; tea entries name their historical sources. Illustrations are visual aids, not photographs documenting a reading. Corrections and source suggestions are welcome.
Cup reading is a plain-language name for interpreting residue in a cup. Tasseography is the broader name for the practice, including coffee grounds and tea leaves.
Use coffee that leaves visible grounds. Turkish-style unfiltered coffee is suitable; paper-filtered coffee and fully dissolved instant coffee usually leave few useful shapes.
Describe a line, cluster or gap without naming it. Compare the images in the catalog, but do not force a match. It is fine to leave the cup uninterpreted.