The taste of things to come

In the bottom of a cup, student sees hints of tomorrow

By Randall Barton

The Portland Tribune, Jan 17, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

These days many folks spend a fortune on coffee, but few find a fortune in coffee.

One exception is Defne Suman, born in Istanbul, Turkey. She has been finding fortunes in Turkish coffee grounds since moving here in June.

Arabica coffee beans were taken to Istanbul from Yemen more than 4 1/2 centuries ago. The heady brew of the Ottoman Empire spread quickly, and within a century the citizens of Paris, Venice and London were klatching on Turkish coffee.

Using the dregs of beverages to portend the future is an ancient enterprise. The Chinese used tea leaves, upending the cup and interpreting the cryptic images lining its interior. Romans read the sediment left in their wine goblets; coffee divination has long been the specialty of the Turks.

“It is still very common in Turkey,” Suman says, “especially among women. When two or three women come together for coffee or tea, one of them turns the cup and one of them reads it. It is a part of everyday life. If I had to make a decision on a particular day, an older woman would say, ‘Let’s read your coffee for today, and it’s going to tell you what to do about that.’ ”

Suman was studying yoga in Thailand when her mother suggested a family reunion, not in Turkey, but in Portland, where Suman’s aunt and cousin live. During her visit here, she began looking for a good yoga workshop and met Timo Jiminez of Yoga Pada and began studying with him. Jiminez and his wife, Aisha Harley, invited her to stay with them while continuing her yoga studies.

“I’m a yoga student trying to make a living in Portland,” Suman says. “Yoga helps me to make time for everything. It’s a way for me to connect my inner conscience with everything. From the moment I am connected there (at the yoga center), everything makes sense. The meaning of yoga is ‘union.’ ”

Suman practices yoga six to seven hours a day. But once a day, for an hour and a half, she makes time to read coffee grounds for clients. As most people are more comfortable in their own homes, she travels to them. But if they prefer, clients can go to her home in Southeast Portland.

The session begins with her brewing the finely ground coffee, which her mother sends from Turkey. She pours the unfiltered brew into a Turkish coffee cup Ñ about the size of an espresso cup Ñ which narrows at the bottom.

Classically, one never adds milk or sugar to Turkish coffee. If you want sweet, eat a pastry between sips. For the purpose of divination, the coffee is consumed until there are only muddy grounds left in the bottom of the cup.

“There are a few ways to do this,” Suman explains. “Either you can ask me specific questions and I’ll try to get the whole reading to answer those questions, or you can have a general reading. Usually I will see a story there, and I tell that story. Some people don’t want to tell me their questions. And that’s OK. I tell them, ‘Just think about your question, don’t tell it to me and I’ll tell you something and you can do your own interpretations by listening to my story.’ ”

Doing a reading

She instructs me to hold the cup in one hand and the saucer in the other, then place the saucer over the cup. “Now close your eyes and circle the cup horizontally in front of your heart three times.”

The cup and saucer are quickly upended and set down on a table, where the dregs will form patterns on the cup’s sides. As the cup cools Suman says, “Close your eyes. At this point if you have any questions you want answered or anything you want to know, without worrying about them Ñ think about them in a neutral way.”

Suman began doing readings when she was studying yoga in Thailand. The students held a potluck dinner, and instead of cooking something, she decided to prepare coffee and do readings for guests at the party.

“I started to read, and all of a sudden this huge line formed,” she says. “Things were just coming to me. That night I did about 20 readings. And from that day onward, I had appointments every day.”

‘Very pregnant’

“Open your eyes,” Suman instructs. She reads the cup clockwise from the handle. Her reading becomes an hour and a half of what she terms intuitive counseling.

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