I picked up The Penguin Guide to Superstitions of Britain and Ireland at my local library and the section on tea grabbed me because I’ve written a romance with a tea-leaf reader heroine. I hadn’t realized tea came with so many superstitions.
Here are a few of them:
Tea pot lids – if you accidently leave the lid off the pot when making tea, a stranger will call soon. People from Suffolk believe leaving the teapot lid off means you’ll be sent for—it’s not clear by whom—while those in Somerset think the teapot lid means the services of a doctor will be required before day’s end.
Pouring the tea – It’s bad luck for two people to pour tea from the same pot. In some regions two people pouring from the same pot will result in a pregnancy (I presume there is a man and woman in the equation as well as a teapot!)
Tea Stalk or leaves – if you find a stalk or a leaf floating in your cup of tea a visitor will arrive. It’s possible the visitor will be a stranger.
Milk and sugar – If you put milk in your tea before the sugar you run the risk of losing a loved one.
There doesn’t seem to be any logic to the superstitions, but I found them interesting. The only one I’d heard of before is the one about floating tea leaves. My parents used to say to expect a visitor whenever there were floating tea leaves.
Have you heard of these superstitions or do you have any to add?
Note: The book featuring tasseography or tea leaf reading is Reformed Bad Girl.
I’ve never heard of any of those. I drink a lot of tea but mostly the bagged kind of tea. I have a loose leaf tea pot but the filter never catches all the loose leaf tea.
We used to use teabags, but have moved back to loose tea during the last two years. The tea seems to be better. There is nothing worse than a mouthful of tea leaves. Yuck!