You’re a worrywart, aren’t you?" asks Otis Biggs, glancing at the inner workings of a white cup speckled and clumped with damp, russet-colored tea leaves. "The universe wants you to do what you want to do," he decides with reassuring confidence.

  When Otis learned that I had come to Bottom of the Cup Tea Room to have my leaves read, he carried the cup in question to his reading room, cradling it with both palms as if it were a crystal ball. On the other side of the beaded door, he instructed me to place my hand over the cup, "to let it feel your vibrations." There were tarot cards on the table and a telephone on the wall.

  "It’s all in the energy," is Otis’ mantra. Whether a client places her energy into a mess of tea leaves, a crystal ball, a deck of cards or a telephone line doesn’t matter to him. "I’m a psychic; as long as I feel the energy," he says.

  It’s been 30 years since Otis first brought his psychic gift to Bottom of the Cup. In addition to having one’s teal leaves read, the 70-year-old French Quarter tea room offers a more traditional cup of Russian Caravan or Sencha green tea. While it might be the oldest and most eccentric venue for a cuppa in the city, it’s certainly not the only one.

  Among the newest is The Ritz Carlton, where Tea Manager Renee Parks admits she adores tea. "It’s a ceremony. It shouldn’t be blase. Tea is to be enjoyed, to be satiated. I love tea. I love the ceremony, and I love how it affects people," Parks says.

  And tea in The Ritz Carlton’s Lobby Lounge is anything but blase. The female servers float through the ornate room in creamy floor-length gowns, pouring rare teas from Wedgwood porcelain pots and smoothing silken placemats. The tea selection of black, oolong, green and (coming soon) rare white teas is produced by the 100-year-old Taylors of Harrogate in England. A tea named Blue Sapphire created in honor of the hotel’s longtime cobalt blue fascination is a large-leaf black tea delicately blended with blue cornflowers.

  The Ritz follows the English tradition of afternoon tea, serving crustless cucumber sandwiches, scones with Devonshire cream, petit pots of creme brulee and a chocolate cart with strawberries and Grand Marnier. Take it all, plus a glass of champagne, and it’s a dinner replacement. Cut out a course or two and you’ll feel like Anna, the Duchess of Bedford, who in the 1700s allegedly began the whole business of delicate snacks and tea in the late afternoon to abate her hunger pains until dinner.

  That’s exactly what I did one afternoon in Le Salon at the Windsor Court Hotel, while a classical harpist strummed "The Rose" and the strong English vibe moved me like never before to eat Devonshire cream by the spoonful. Current and walnut scones crusted with sugar and positioned on a paper doily were escorted by the thick cream, lemon curd and preserves.

  As servers properly poured tea through hand-held sieves into thin-lipped cups, a bartender filled glass after glass of cool Chardonnay and sherry for a table of ten hatted women in the center of the room. A nearby party of three included two children, barely able to see over the tabletop. Each sat up straight, sipped nicely at the hot beverage and politely consulted the linen napkins in their laps after each nibble at fragile tartlets.

  A less regal and more, say, in-the-moment teatime happens at a hotel set in another era. The Zen Tea Fixe is a new ceremony at W Hotel — so new, in fact, that the parking attendant asked if I hadn’t meant to pull into the Windsor Court next door. On a typical afternoon at the W, there are more suits than kimonos in the lobby, and guests forking at raw oysters in the nearby bar suggest martinis more than meditation. Still, the overall experience is rather uplifting.

  I took mine in the lobby, where bamboo placemats, chopsticks and black ceramic plates set one corner of a long table between rows of scooped red stools. Within minutes, a server descended the wide staircase to stream brews from individual teapots into handleless black cups. The vapor from a nutty Dragon Well green tea swirled together with floral scents from a Nantou oolong in the chilled air.

  As might be expected from a Zen tea, Chef Steve Clickner’s Asian fare is lighter than the Ritz’s ode to the British custom. Slices of tuna seared rare smacked of garlic and soy, pink beef cubes sat in a sweet wasabi syrup, and ripe mango dressed bite-size diamonds of sticky rice.

  After seeing my future in tea leaves, drinking Earl Grey steeped in Wedgwood and trailing chopsticks through wasabi syrup, I uncovered that Uptown’s Secret Garden Tea Room is the most unaffected spot for a spur-of-the-moment spot of tea. Although a few men ate quiche in the corners, the clientele was exactly what you would expect: ladies, ladies and more ladies.

  So proprietors Helen Williams and her daughter Erika knew what to do when another one entered with a mid-week craving for the gentle buzz of jasmine and a three-course spread. In keeping with the warm surroundings of their renovated shotgun home-turned-tearoom, the edible selections were homey, tasty and more than enough. They included pimento cheese tea sandwiches, heart-shaped raisin scones with lemon curd and a chocolate-glazed wedge of pecans.

  Ceremony was not lost on the tea. Pots snuggled inside tea cozies and rested on tiled side tables between refills which, from first to last, poured the warmest cup in town. .

BOX:

Bottom of the Cup Tea Room (327 Chartres St., 524-1997) Assorted loose-leaf teas, tea paraphernalia and tea leaf readings starting at $35.

The Ritz Carlton Hotel (921 Canal St., 524-1331) Afternoon tea in three variations starting at $20; children’s tea. 1:30 to 4 p.m. daily. Reservations recommended.

Secret Garden Tea Room (3626 Magazine St., 895-2913) Three-course Classic Tea for $11.95. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday; private parties Sunday.

W Hotel (333 Poydras St., 525-9444) Zen Tea for $18. 3 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Reservations required.

Windsor Court Hotel (300 Gravier St., 522-1992) Afternoon tea in two variations starting at $18. 2 to 4:30 p.m. daily. Reservations recommended.