A Fortune in My Cup: The Practice of Reading Coffee Grounds
A coffee cup on a wooden table. Source: Valentyn Volkov, Getty Images.
Perhaps you have heard of the tradition of reading tea leaves, it is practiced in many tea drinking cultures. However, did you know that many African Americans have a custom of reading coffee grounds?
Chaz Ebert, CEO and publisher of Ebert Digital recounts tea reading experiences with her mother:
“My mother was very intuitive. My mother was a psychic and a lot of people, women would come to the house to ask her to read tea leaves or to interpret dreams. She didn't do it, she didn't charge money for anything like that and in fact she--we didn't even really talk about it that much. But she also was a, an herbalist and she would prepare things that now you would call, you know like organic remedies. But she was very well known in the neighborhood for having second sight or whatever they called it. They called it a lot of stuff back then but--so we knew our mother was different than the other mothers.”
Tea leaves in a cup. Source: Plum Deluxe.
While we may not be familiar with reading tea leaves many of us share the memories of fresh ground coffee as recounted by Library science professor and school media librarian Henrietta Smith (1922 - 2021):
“her mother [Nettie Johnson Mays] would give her money to go across the street and tell Mr. Bill that we wanted one pound of Red Circle Coffee ground fresh, and he would let us pour the coffee in the thing and grind it up and see all the ground up beans come out and we'd pack it in a little bag. Oh, and it smells so good. Coffee has never tasted to me as good as it smells when it's cooking but that was wonderful,”
Lawyer and city council member The Honorable George Forbes shares his family’s unique coffee tradition.
“Let me tell you about my [maternal] grandfather [Joseph Lynch]. --you, you drain the coffee in a cup. And he would drink the coffee out of the cup. And when he would finish drinking the coffee, he would turn the cup upside down in the saucer. Now bear, bear in mind that this, this is not perco- you know this is, didn't come from a coffee pot, because the grounds would be in the, in the coffee cup. He'd turn it upside down. And then after about five or-- minutes, he said, "Well, let me, let me read this cup. Let me see what your fortune is." And he would take the cup, and he'd say, "You know, George [HistoryMaker George Forbes], I see you'll have a long life, you know, and, and it look like, look like something's gonna happen next week." And we would be, we would just be (laughter) enchanted with my grandfather reading the coffee cup, right. And that happened, that would, every time he he'd drink a cup of coffee he do, and I couldn't wait to, 'til I got grown so I could read a coffee cup, see what the grounds (laughter) would say. So that was some of the things that he would do with us.”
A cup of coffee grounds. Source: Shutterstock.
Steen Miles, a former member of the Georgia State Senate recalls a similar situation with her grandfather:
“But at any rate, grandpa Darncey was a very kind man. They called him Doc, and people would come from all over for him to read, not tea leaves, but coffee grinds. He would--he would pour, pour out the, the coffee and, and then just kind of tell their fortunes.”
Investment executive and civil rights leader Ernest Green one of the "Little Rock Nine," speaks on this benefit of being able to “read tea leaves”:
“Well you know not many sociologists end up as investment bankers. But okay, but labor, right.
But, but you know what? The, the other thing that I've discovered from this, which is I [unclear] with the students is that the corporate community in many ways doesn't want people as narrowly defined as we define ourselves. A good liberal arts background could take you a lot of different places, and some economics, you know some activity of markets. But it turned out that that sociology experience, being able to figure people out, read tea leaves, is a, is a pretty good skill set to have. And whether you're in banking or sales or marketing, it's transferrable to lots of different places.”
Reverend B. Herbert Martin, Sr., pastor of The Progressive People’s Community Center – The People’s Church speaks on the ritual of coffee reading:
“Miss Lula Nolan [ph.], if you would, was like the griot, you know, for us. And she was a wisdom woman, and so you had this wisdom circle of women and of men. There is--not the coffee, not the tea leaves reading--but coffee grounds. And if the coffee grounds did not make a certain kind of a formation in the cup--you know, there's a ritual around this cup and the coffee grounds and the consuming of the coffee. And your life story laid out in this cup. And they would read it to you and they would tell you what things to avoid, what things to do, who your possible mate would be, and so forth. And so, it's a lot of ritual there. Some people would frown at that. You know, quote, "Christians" would frown at that. But we were all Christians, but we did not leave our traditional spiritual roots. So, Christianity became a way of moving into a new understanding of God and so forth. But there were some basic traditional things that we maintained, especially closeness to the earth--you know, rituals around spring and autumn, as I told you what my favorite times of the year are. You know, summer and the winter, and the elements of wind and water and fire--you see these as the basic elements, you know, related to you as a person, your body. Your relationship to the moon and the stars, your relationship to the sun. So, and all this hooks together to make you who you are. And it's good to understand the universe in light of who you are as a person on the earth. So, this connectedness is there, yeah.
Citations
Chaz Ebert (The HistoryMakers A2017.121), interviewed by Denise Gines, August 7, 2017, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 5, Chaz Ebert describes her early religious experiences
The Honorable George Forbes (The HistoryMakers A2013.164), interviewed by Larry Crowe, May 9, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 9, The Honorable George Forbes talks about his maternal grandfather
Ernest Green (The HistoryMakers A2003.013), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, January 22, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 8, Ernest Green describes how his educational background and networking skills benefitted him as an investment banker
Reverend B. Herbert Martin, Sr. (The HistoryMakers A2003.294), interviewed by Larry Crowe, December 11, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 3, Reverend B. Herbert Martin, Sr. talks about the mix of African American and Native American cultural traditions in his family
The Honorable Steen Miles (The HistoryMakers A2014.018), interviewed by Larry Crowe, February 21, 2014, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 1, story 4, The Honorable Steen Miles talks about her maternal grandfather
Henrietta Smith (The HistoryMakers A2007.235), interviewed by Adrienne Jones, August 13, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 14, Henrietta Smith describes the sights, sounds and smells of her childhood