Coffee grounds

Coffee grounds are the residue left after brewing coffee, and the medium of coffee-ground reading. For a reading, a cup of Turkish coffee is drunk with some sediment left at the bottom; the cup is turned upside down on its saucer and left until the deposit dries, and the patterns formed on its sides are then interpreted. In French, the phrase “reading the coffee grounds” (lire dans le marc de café) has entered everyday speech to mock a wild guess, a sign of the distance common usage keeps from the practice.