Turkish Coffee

In Sultanahmet's hippodrome, next to the Blue Mosque, there's a nightly "night market" during the month of Ramadan. At sunset, the square fills up with families and picnic blankets taking up every spare centimeter of grass. Surrounding the eat-a-thon are even more places to eat; ice cream, donair kebabs, baklava,  dried fruit, nuts and, of course -- Turkish coffee!

In the Hippodrome, there are several vendors making Turkish coffee. Always made by men, who brew the ground beans traditionally over hot coals in little individual copper pots. The cups are kept hot in a big pot of hot water off to the side.

Coffee ground reading is big here. It involves first enjoying your little cup of thick strong coffee, but don't drink it all!  Stop when you get to the black sludge at the bottom, (it tastes bad so you probably will anyway). Then place the saucer over the top of the cup and flip it over. Make a wish and make 3 swirling circles with the cup and saucer and place it on the table. After a few minutes the reader will flip the cup and saucer and begin reading.

These are the basics....

• The cup is held so that the handle points towards the questioner. The handle represents the questioner and his or her home, and the grounds are read in relation to the position of the handle.

  
  
• The rim of the cup represents recent events. Grounds lying closer to the bottom of the cup indicate events that are more distant in time. The very bottom of the cup represents misfortunes.
  
• Grounds that lie to the right of the handle indicate the future, and grounds to the left of the handle indicate the past.
  
• The further away the grounds lie from the handle, the further away the events are in either time or even physical distance.
  

Then you take a look at the grounds themselves. You'll see that there are shapes in the grounds that can be interpreted but the reader. Every symbol, from ants to zeppelins have special meaning. 

Some people love it, some hate it, some acquire a taste for it, (as I did).  As the evenings turn a little cooler in late September, and the moon is full, (like it is tonight) nothing beats a tiny, steamy cup of Turkish coffee!

Even if you don't like Turkish coffee, you can still get a reading!  Try this out!