Tea stalk floating in your cup
A tea stalk floating on your tea is a sign that a visitor is on the way, according to Cornish lore recorded by Robert Hunt. Place it on the back of one hand and smack it with the other: the blows it takes to fall off count the days.
What it may mean
The tea stalk belongs to a family of small domestic signs that turned waiting into a game. Robert Hunt, collecting Cornish customs in the nineteenth century, recorded that stems floating in tea foretold strangers, and so did flakes of soot hanging loose on the fire bars. Neither sign said who. The fun lay in working out when: you laid the stem on the back of one hand and smacked it with the other, and the number of blows it took to fall off gave the days until the arrival. Anticipation is easier to carry when it has a number attached. A stalk riding on your tea could offer a playful moment to notice whose visit you are secretly hoping for.
Depending on how you saw it
Soot on the fire bars
Hunt recorded that a flake of soot hanging loose on the grate also announced a stranger; you blew on it, and the blow that brought it down set the day. Which household sign do you still half-watch for?
Loose tea and tea bags
Loose tea, especially coarser grades with broken leaf and stem, gave far more stalks than tea bags, which keep the pieces inside. Which old sign has faded from your days simply because the way you live has changed?
Why it happens in nature
Tea is made from the leaves and buds of the tea plant, and coarser grades include bits of stem. A stalk is woodier and lighter than a leaf fragment and can trap air, so it may ride on the surface for a while after the leaf pieces have sunk.
What folk beliefs say
England (Cornwall)
In Cornwall, Robert Hunt recorded, tea stems floating in the cup indicate strangers, as do flakes of soot hanging loose on the fire bars. To learn when, place the stem on the back of one hand and smack it with the other: the blows needed to knock it off give the days.
Source: Robert Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of England, 3rd ed. (1881), p. 427-428. View the page
To reflect on
Who do you find yourself hoping will drop by, and have you thought of inviting them?