Coffee Fortunes Enabled Harem Gossip

Turkish coffee culture dates back roughly 500 years to the 16th-century Ottoman era, and fortune-telling from the leftover grounds became part of the tradition. It started in the Ottoman harem not just as magic but as a clever social loophole. Women used the "fortunes" in the cups as a safe excuse to gossip, vent, and talk about taboo subjects without getting in trouble.

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