It’s a plant that has changed history — and when you dig into its rich folklore, you start to realise just how much meaning has been packed into each cup.
In this blog post, we’re going to have a quick look at some of the folklore, superstitions and eccentric cultural traditions surrounding tea. There might even be time for some nefarious doodad.
Now let’s scatter the leaves of tea over the doorstep of ignorance and get brewing.
Horticultural eyelids
One of the weirder theories about the origins of tea in India involves the ancient Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. According to legend, Bodhidharma was a prince who became a Buddhist monk and travelled from India to China in the 6th century to spread the teachings of Buddhism.
He was determined to meditate facing a wall for nine years without sleeping. In a moment of frustration, he plucked off his own eyelids and threw them to the ground. Legend has it that tea plants sprouted from the spot where his eyelids landed, symbolising eternal wakefulness and alertness (caffeine).
Knocking knuckles
In writing these blogs, we often come across little gestures and customs with interesting legends attached to them. The Chinese practice of knocking knuckles or ‘finger kowtow’ from our Tea rituals of the world - China is an excellent example.
Kowtow Origin - from Chinese kētóu, from kē ‘knock’ + tóu ‘head’.
The Finger Kowtow, also known as finger tapping, is a ceremonial gesture performed as a silent expression of gratitude towards the tea server.
During the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong embarked on a covert journey to the southern regions, accompanied by his ministers. On one occasion, they entered a teahouse where the owner skilfully poured water from a long-spouted pot, rhythmically moving it up and down to prepare tea without spilling a drop.
Intrigued by this technique, Emperor Qianlong enquired about the motion's meaning.
With a smile, the teahouse owner explained that their establishment followed a tradition known as the "Three Nods of the Phoenix." Emperor Qianlong attempted to replicate the same pouring technique, unknowingly selecting his servant's cup.
Ordinarily, the servant would kneel and kowtow in appreciation of this great honour. However, such doing so would have exposed the emperor's true identity, which was not the plan.
In some quick thinking, the servant bent his two fingers and tapped them on the table, mimicking the motion of kneeling and kowtowing.
And so the practice of finger kowtow was born. Today, rather than symbolising an actual kowtow, people simply tap fingers on the table as a silent gesture of gratitude towards the tea server.
And yes there is more.
How many fingers you use to say thank you depends on age.
If the host is of similar age, you use your index and middle finger and tap with the end of your fingers.✌️
If they’re much younger than you, you just tap the end of one finger .👆
If your host Is significantly senior to you, you make a loose fist and knock on the table.👊
Fortune-telling, superstitions, and tea leaves
According to this excellent podcast predictions are the mainstay of the folklore of tea, particularly in the UK.
Here are some of the battier ones:
Tasseography
Tasseography - the practice of interpreting patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediments to gain insight or make predictions.
Regular readers will know that we are much more scientifically inclined than to go in for divination but it’ll be interesting nonetheless.
This article on NPR gives a great overview of the subject.
Victorian Britain was where tea leaf reading had its heyday. There was a growing interest in self reflection and the occult, with thinkers like Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer.
Of course the age of rapid industrialisation both helped create and enhance such superstitions with industrious potters making tea leaf reading cups.
Marriage prediction
If you want to predict when a marriage will happen, then balance a teaspoon on the edge of the cup. Drip tea one drop at a time onto the spoon until the spoon falls. The number of drips it takes to dislodge the spoon is how many years it’ll be until a marriage happens.
Imagine being the person who first did this then obsessed for years until their prediction did or did not come true.
Super-stir-tion
Only ever use a spoon to stir tea as it’s bad luck to stir it with anything else.
Who among us hasn’t, in a pinch, extracted a teabag with a butter knife and then immediately slipped on a banana skin while walking under a ladder?
Something’s fishy..man
Sources differ on this one but the constant is that if you fully empty a fisherman’s teapot when he’s out to sea, he’ll either draw a blank or get lost at sea.
Neither seem like proportionate punishments.
This tea tastes like poison
Mary Ann Cotton
Finally, as promised we get to the darker side of tea folklore. Or should we say folk LAW!
Mary Ann Cotton is known as Britains first female serial killer. For a fairly lighthearted blog post, this is actually a pretty horrific story.
Her weapon of choice was arsenic poisoning, slipped into, you guessed it, tea!
Arsenic poisoning mimicked the symptoms of many common diseases, like gastric fever or cholera, which were frequently misdiagnosed, helping her get away with killing somewhere between 21 to 30 people.
The poison has a slightly bitter taste which is well hidden when dissolved into tea, particularly if administered in small doses over a long time.
There are many, many deeper dives into this horrible horrible lady but we’ll leave you with the rather macabre nursery rhyme from the time.
Mary Ann Cotton, she's dead and she's rotten
Lying in bed with her eyes wide open.
Sing, sing, oh what should I sing?
Mary Ann Cotton, she's tied up with string.
Where, where? Up in the air.
Selling black puddings, a penny a pair.
Mary Ann Cotton, she's dead and forgotten,
Lying in bed with her bones all rotten.
Sing, sing, what can I sing?
Mary Ann Cotton, tied up with string.