A Cup Of Coffee
Posted by terrepruitt on January 15, 2025
A cup is eight ounces. I understand that Americans may have an obsession with coffee. And fancy coffees at that, with Starbucks, Peet’s, and Dutch Bros being everywhere. And I am going to go out on a limb and say most people (those that drink coffee) drink more than a cup – 8 ounces – of coffee. I know most of my mugs are way larger than that. I say I have two cups of coffee a day, but that is my mugs. I have two mugs a day so I actually have between 2 1/2 and 3 cups – 8 ounces – of coffee a day. My question lies with coffee making instructions. I requested yummy/fancy coffee for Christmas. Coffee is expensive and so we tend to buy affordable coffee and not fancy coffee. So I received some coffee for Christmas and all of the instructions are based on 6 ounces of water.
For each 6 ounces of water use a tablespoon and a half of coffee. Why is it six ounces? Again, a CUP is 8 ounces and many people have oversized mugs so a six ounces “cup” isn’t even a thing. Now I bet most of you aren’t even bothered by this, but I just don’t understand the “cup” as 6 ounces. What is up with that?
While these things don’t keep me up at night they do tend to annoy me when I go to make coffee. What about you? Do you drink coffee? Do you drink more than 8 ounces of coffee?
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Cindy said
I[ doubt any of the “small” cups at coffee shops are less than 8 ounces, but now I’m curious. My coffee drinking consists of one cup a day, likely in an 8 ounce mug. My partner? Lots more. We make a carafe to level 7 for the two of us.
Your question makes me think of our rice maker, which comes with a “cup” to use for measuring rice and water. The thing is, their “cup” isn’t 8 ounces, even though they repeatedly refer to it as “a cup.”
It is, I agree, a tad off-kilter.
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terrepruitt said
I just don’t understand why they come up with these measurements. I don’t measure rice. I just pour rice in and then, after rinsing the rice, I put the water in almost up to my first knuckle. I am sure it is a marketing thing, if they refer to it as a “cup” our brains think 8 ounces, so it appears to us as if we are getting more than we actually are.
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Sheree said
Espresso per favore!
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Michele L Moyer said
I suppose I have too much time on my hands. lol I have always been bothered more by assuming that the coffee carafe measurements were 8 oz and the coffee measurements were for 6 oz. Once I did the experiment and learned that the measurement of 1 on the coffee pot is also 6 oz. I was a little less annoyed 🙂 As long as they match I can make as much coffee as I want!
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terrepruitt said
Interesting!!!! I just measured our coffee pot and I put in two cups/16 ounces (via a liquid measuring cup) and it went up to the 4 line. So that is even worse. I don’t have a “one” line, it starts at 4. So the coffee pot considers a cup to be 4 ounces. So when I make four “cups” of coffee instead of 32 ounces it is only 16. That is why we make 8 “cups” of coffee in the morning. If pots and coffee matched then it would be easier. It probably has to do with marketing. When coffee is sold it can brag is makes 32 cups of coffee but instead of that being 256 ounces (as one might think using the standard 8 ounces in a cup), it is 192. That also makes our 12 cup coffee maker actually only a 6 cup coffee maker. Ha, ha, ha, ha!
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