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Tasseography (also known as tasseomancy, tassology, or tasseology) is a divination or fortune-telling method that interprets patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediments.

The terms derive from the French word tasse (cup), which in turn derives from the Arabic loan-word into French tassa, and the Greek suffixes -graph (writing), -logy (study of), and -mancy (divination).

Premise

Tasseography is the divination practice of seeking to gain insight into a person or their situation by studying the patterns they leave after drinking sediment rich beverages. Tea is most commonly used due to its ubiquity but any beverage that leaves sediment or residue in the drinking cup is used, such as coffee grounds or herbal teas. Practitioners believe that individuals influence the positioning of the sediment by the actions they take during the preparation and consumption of the beverage and by doing so unknowingly or subconsciously leave patterns or symbols. An interpreter, who is uninfluenced by the subject, seeks to recognize the patterns and, using the same interpretative symbology used in other methods of divination, such as cartomancy, runecasting, astrology, numerology, etc.

History

The use of tea leaves for divination purposes developed as an extension of earlier forms of divination practices involving the reading of symbols, such as pyromancy

Tasseomancy followed the trade routes of tea and coffee and was practiced by both Baltic and Slavic nations. It is closely related to the Romani people, whose nomadic lifestyle contributed to the spread of the practice, though its exact origins are unknown. Throughout its history, different regions have practiced it with slight variations which indicates that this form of divination was an oral tradition. It is not considered a closed cultural practice, but oftentimes it is traditional to ask permission from a Romani elder as a sign of respect.

Western tasseography can be linked to medieval European fortune tellers who developed their readings from splatters of wax, lead, and other molten substances.

Method

Like other forms of divination, the performance of tasseography involves a ritual, an instrument or medium that generates a language, and a client seeking insight. Tea without a strainer (e.g. bag) or turkish coffee is used in a white cup free of interior decoration so that the patterns can be more easily distinguished. The tea or coffee is prepared according to the preferences of the client. They may include additives, like sugar, milk, fruit or additional water; they may steep for longer or shorter times to their preferred taste; and they may handle the cup, and consume or discard the beverage in their typical or preferred manner.

Once the practitioner takes the cup, they may perform a ritual, such as turning the cup upside down or turning the cup around so that excessive leaves and fluid are discarded and the cup ends with the handle facing them. The practitioner then looks for recognizable symbols, shapes, letters or numbers in the remaining leaves or sediment. What is found in the area closest to the handle represents more personal items, with the opposite side being about events happening farther away from the home or family or influence from strangers. Larger symbols are more important or consequential than smaller symbols. The relevancy of the symbols with respect to timing can also be read, such as the area closer to the bottom of the cup being about the present with the future extending out to the rim, or the left side (relative to the handle facing the practitioner) being about the past and the right side about the future.

Assam tea

Assam
Type	Black
Other names	NA
Origin	Assam, India

History

See also: History of Assam

While on a trade expedition through the Assam area with Singpho in 1823 Robert Bruce was introduced to a plant with which the Singpho and Khamti people made beverages and food. Through his brother, Charles Alexander Bruce who was in Sadiya, samples were sent to botanist Nathaniel Wallich who mistook it for camellia kissi. It was not until over a decade later that the Singpho's plant would be recognized as being the same plant as the Camellia sinensis growing in China, after Francis Jenkins and Andrew Charlton responded to the request of the British East India Company's Tea Committee for its agents to review prospects for establishing a source of tea outside of China.

• While the poor quality tea being produced led Indians to add spices to create masala chai, efforts to improve quality included recruiting Chinese labourers with purported experience in cultivating the plant and manufacturing black tea, and experiments to create Hybrid versions of the sinensis and assamica varieties of the plant.

• Williamson Magor Group - McLeod Russel
• soft withering, with a moisture content between 65 and 75 percent.<Martin>
• 1904 recipe for chai tea in Culinary art sparklets by Beatrice A. Vieyra

• 2000s orthodox Assam tea gets protected as a Geographical Indication
• about 800 tea estates

Geography, cultivation and processing

A tin of Assam tea

An Assam tea garden

Assam tea is produced in the Brahmaputra Valley in the state of Assam, India, between the Himilayan Mountains to the north and the mountains of Meghalaya and Nagaland to the south. The valley's alluvial plain was formed by the Brahmaputra River and its tributaries coming off the surrounding mountains. The river's high sedimentation yield combined with its exposure to southwest monsoons from the Bay of Bengal gave rise to the Brahmaputra Valley semi-evergreen forests ecoregion in which the assamica variety of the Camellia sinensis plant evolved. In contrast to the sinensis variety which grows at high elevations, assamica in Assam grows in the low elevations, between x and y metres above sea level. The area is exposed to cyclonic activity from April to May followed by a southwest monsoon from June to September, and a cool, foggy winter.

• preference for deep, light, acidic and well-drained soil
• Geography split; annual average ppt varies from about 1,800 mm in west to 3,000 mm in east.
• Lower Assam to the west = area around Guwahati (where there is an auction house), Nalbari district, Bongaigaon district
• Upper (and central) Assam to the east = around Jorhat-Golaghat-Dibrugarh-Tinsukia districts
• no hot, dry season
• harvested April - Nov; most productive tea-growing region in the world, amounts to ~50% of all tea produced in India

cultivation

• Camellia sinensis var. assamica naturally becomes an 18-metre tall tree – but when it reaches 50cm (20in), its centre stem is cut to push the growth outwards rather than upwards.(teapigs)
• plucking frequency varies from every 2-3 days in peak growing conditions to every 7-14 other time of the year
• First flush in April; second flush in May-June
• Assam tea picked from October to December is known as the Winter Harvest

Assam tea in a cup

processing

• wither and oxidize in same step taking 18 hours, use soft wither; predominantly CTC due to timeliness of processing and ability to handle the vast amounts (Harney)

Flavour and blends

• full-bodied, woody malty notes; suitable with milk; often used in Earl Grey blends; paired with continental or english breakfast, meats

• can be complemented with milk and/or sugar; Used in many blends, often in chai blends (strength and astringency able to bring tea flavour over strong spices), breakfast blends and most typically in Irish Breakfast blends, also often used in Earl Grey blends, East Frisian, afternoon blends, chocolate mint and spiced pear (dried pair, ginger, walnut)
• Irish breakfast blend (teapigs)<ref name=Gaylard>
• strong, earthy flavour; ideal for blending and are recommended to be drunk with milk and sugar; first flush produces strong and fresh aroma; second flush produces the famous 'tippy teas', with a rich aroma, a strong malty taste and a clear dark red liquor. (Saberi)
• honey and malty flavors (Harney)

Other

Noted filmmaker Jahnu Barua has been campaigning for a separate time zone for the northeast region.

Further reading

• Assam Labour Enquiry Committee Report (PDF) (Report). 1922. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 August 2016.

• Barker, George (1884). "Tea Planter's Life in Assam".

• "Assam cabinet's nod to tea as 'state drink' of Assam". Business Standard. 17 October 2012.

• Gruning, J.F. (1909). "Recruitment of labour for Tea gardens in Assam".

• Kiple, Kenneth F.; Ornelas, Kriemhild C. (October 2000). The Cambridge World History of Food. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-40216-6.

• Varma, Nitin (2016). Coolies of Capitalism: Assam Tea and the Making of Coolie Labour. De Gruyter Oldenbourg. ISBN 978-3-11-046115-2 – via Google Books.

External links

• [Guwahati Tea Auction Centre]

• "Images of 19th century Assam plantations". Smithsonian Institution.

• "Tea History". Plant Cultures.