05/09/2026
There's an old kind of magic that begins in a tea cup.
It is called tasseography: the art of reading the patterns tea leaves leave behind after the final sip. For centuries, people have looked into the cup for symbols, warnings, promises, and little glimpses of what may be waiting ahead. A bird. A heart. A road. A ring. In the right hands, even the smallest swirl can become a message.
Tea-leaf reading became so popular over the years that psychic tea rooms began popping up across American cities in the 1920s and 30s. In many places, fortune-tellers could not legally charge for a reading, so guests would buy a cup of tea and receive the reading “for free.” Bottom of the Cup, opened in 1929, offered those very services, and still carries that old-world magic forward. Nestled in the heart of New Orleans, it's a place where tea, mystery, and the promise of a message in the leaves have long belonged together.
