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I, too, found that I was suddenly opening up about my troubles and tensions, my life experiences and aspirations for the future.
Virtual fortune tellers
Boldened, perhaps, by Turkish coffee as a talking point, I turned to a stranger in a cafe later that day and asked if she has her fortunes read. Yonca Oğuz, in her early 20s, confirmed the ritual is still very popular among Turkish women. “When one of our friends is having a crisis, we get together and we find a falcı,” she said.
However, for her generation, this is also shifting to virtual readings.
In 2017, Faladdin – a play on “fal” and “Aladdin” – was created by model and influencer Sertac Tasdelen, who grew up with a mother who could read coffee fortunes. In 2010, his friends began sending photographs of their drained coffee cups to his mother, who would respond with fortunes via email. Eventually, this evolved into the app, which automatically generates coffee cup fortunes. Now, Faladdin has more than five million active users worldwide and is as big in Turkey as Tinder, said Oğuz.
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In the US, clairvoyance is also booming among Gen Z-ers, with astrology apps such as Co-Star pinging users with daily horoscopes. A 2021 study found that younger Americans are doubling down on divination practices, with 51% of its sample population, aged 13-25, engaging in “tarot cards or fortune telling”.
“Lots of us need guidance, and sometimes it’s easier to talk to a stranger,” suggested Salcigil White.
In 2023, a TikTok video went viral featuring her coffee shop in Alexandria, Virginia. The clip racked up more than 30,000 likes, as the cafe’s in-house fortune teller gave a comically accurate coffee reading to a lifestyle influencer. Now, the cafe’s fortune teller gets booked up months in advance by people of all ages and nationalities, Salcigil White said.
Although the backdrop may have changed – from harems to coffeehouses to phone screens – the demand for life’s clues persists.
“Coffee fortune telling is a centuries-old ritual, it was popular 500 years ago and is still popular to this day,” said Salcigil White. “We may be in a different stage of technological communication, but the basic logic is the same – everybody wants to know the future.”
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