One of the best things to do with tea, is of course drink it. Whether you take it with milk, no milk, sugar or as it comes, we all love nothing more than settling down with a warm cup of tea.But, that isn’t the only thing that you can do with your brew. The art of Tasseomancy has been around for centuries. the Romans, the Greeks and even the Chinese have been known to take a look at the loose leaves in the bottom of the cup in order to ask for guidance, or simply to peek into the future.Fancy having a go at it yourself? Well we have put together our guide to Tasseomancy, how to prepare for a reading and what kind of things that you should look out for.

What you need for a reading

The best news about reading tea leaves is that you will need to make yourself an amazing brew first. You will need the loose-leaf tea, not a tea bag. You want to keep the leaves nice and free in the cup, which means that you can work with them once you have enjoyed your tea.

Whilst you are drinking your tea you should relax and think about the things that you want to “ask the leaves”. You should aim to drink the majority of the liquid, leaving just enough at the bottom to give those lovely leaves a good slosh around.  It is probably a good idea to use a lighter coloured mug or cup, one that has a wide opening. This will mean that you can easily see all of the patterns.

Thinking about what you want to know, you should gently swirl the cup around 3 times so that the leaves stick to the sides. Some people say that it is best to move the cup in a clockwise motion as this represents moving towards the future, but really it is up to you.

After that, you need to turn the cup upside down on the saucer and tap it three times, so that most of the leaves drop out of the cup.
Now it is time to look in the cup and see what you find.

What to look out for

There are a variety of websites out there that can help you to decipher what you have found in your tea. Rather than delve into all this information now, we suggest you check out: the AuntyFlo Dictionary for great hints on reading tea leaves. Or there is also a great book called Little Giant Encyclopaedia: Tea Leaf Reading.

Both of which can help you to make sense of the patterns and shapes that you have found.

If you are not feeling the idea of looking into the future via your brew, why not just sample some of the amazing teas that we have in our store? You might not be able to ask for guidance about where your life is going, but with our help you can relax and unwind, if only for 10 minutes.