Pet Peeve: What is the true size of a cup of coffee?

[Roxanne Appleby]

Many decades ago I determined for myself how many rounded tablespoons of ground coffee are needed to brew a given number of ounces of water into coffee to my taste (the proportion of coffee to water declines the larger the quantity you brew). The first thing I do with any "helpful" measuring devices and instructions provided by coffeemakers is toss them both. (Recently I've found some tablespoons are getting larger - I keep an old one just for coffee measuring.)

 

[SlickTony]

I like those big round cups-- almost like a bowl with a handle. They hold 24 oz to the rim... And they are sometimes difficult to find.

Check out Wal-Mart and Family Dollar stores--I've found those cups in both stores, if those are the cups I think you mean. They're sold as latte cups but we use 'em for soup at my house.

Recently I've found some tablespoons are getting larger

Now are you talking about measuring spoons or the tablespoons that come in a set of flatware? I wouldn't be surprised by the latter, but isn't the size of a measuring spoon established by some branch of the gov'mint--the USDA or the ANSI or something?

Which brings me to one of my pet peeves: Since I started being able to afford cell phones, I've had six of them, and of course my husband and son have had nearly as many. Each and every one of them has had its own charger and its own headset and not one of them was interchangeable with the other, except for our latest phones: we decided we'd all get MotoRazrs so that we could use the same kind of charger and all.

I was working at this one place where a lot of us had Nokias, and there were a couple of Nokia chargers. They looked exactly alike and they had the exact same kind of fitting--but one of them would actually charge up my phone and the other would not.

Just imagine what it would have been like if our electrical appliances had developed like that--if you had a GE lamp you'd have to buy GE bulbs for it, and so on. I suppose there was a time when electrical appliances were sort of in their infancy, standards had not been established, but I'm just glad all that got worked out before I was in existence. I hope that the current situation with the phones will get worked out in a similar way.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Stella, I find those gigantor cups for sale next to the Soup of the Day at Pavillion's. They actually are soup bowls with handles!

 

[Stella_Omega]

It is not much different than men's cock. I am told most are 9 inches. Not sure of the ounce factor, but men do prefer to say they'd have a grande rather than a tall.

This is why women are so bad at math, right?

 

[AllardChardon]

Women excel at language skills and we are living proof of that. I am on my afternoon cup of starbucks to stay awake for some editing. 102 degrees in the back yard, it is too hot to play in the mud.

 

[SeaCat]

My coffee maker says it makes 12 cups of coffee. I find that this turns out to be two of my cups and one of my wifes cups.

Then again my wife uses a coffee cup we got with a set of dishes. (Much to small for me, I call it her Sippy Cup.)

My coffee cup on the other hand is one of those wonderful car cups with the wide base and narrow neck. It holds just a bit less than half a pot of coffee. (Now if I can only find a way to carry it on the bike and still be able to drink it. Kind of hard while wearing a helmet.)

Cat

 

[AllardChardon]

Back in from my watering outside. Finished editing and now I am drinking a lovely Guiness before dinner. Ain't life grand?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Back in from my watering outside. Finished editing and now I am drinking a lovely Guiness before dinner. Ain't life grand?

Have you ever encountered South Africa's answer to Bailey's Cream? It's called Amarula and I buy it by the half case when I'm at the Safari Club Convention. I've got a glass of sitting next to the monitor as we speak . . .

 

[BarbarouSevil]

Me: I would like a small decaf, please.

Overly cheery, hypercaffienated "Barista": A grande decaf?

Me: A small one, please.

 

[S-Des]

Coffee isn't coffee until it's 16oz (at least). Everything less than that is just a sample.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Coffee isn't coffee until it's 16oz (at least). Everything less than that is just a sample.

Amen, brother, and again I say A-MEN!!

 

[AllardChardon]

Volupt,

Amarula, the liquor with the picture of the elephant on it. Wonderful stuff. My oldest son brought me back a bottle from a cruise to Mexico. Be sure to have some on hand if I ever get back to my hometown of Torrance, CA. I would happily stop by your place on the way...

Allard

 

[matriarch]

I never did get the whole coffee thing whilst over there.......it has reached here, we have Starbucks who use their silly size names here also. Most of the local coffee shops though, offer you the choice of 'small', 'medium' or 'large'. Thank you, and the small is small, the size of a normal coffee cup/mug. The large is probably what Starbucks would call a 'tall'. Stupid.

 

[Roadbug]

We have a 12 cup coffee maker that leaks if you put enough water in it to make the full 12 6 ounce cups. This is designed like that, and not an accident. If you have the suggested amount of water in it you only get 10 of those undersized cups of coffee and that adds up to about 3 cups of coffee in my cup.

 

[Guest]

Hmmm... I hate to be picky (well, I don't, but it always sounds good if ya say that!), but how can a liquid be measured by weight?

When you all say "oz" I presume you mean "fl. oz"?

Liquids are measured by volume (as in fluid ounces) not by weight (as in ounces).

Must be a Brit thing.

Oh, and to me, there are two cup sizes... a cup and a mug.

Lou - a Brit that drinks tea

 

[elfin_odalisque]

Hmmm... I hate to be picky (well, I don't, but it always sounds good if ya say that!), but how can a liquid be measured by weight?

Hi lou, great to see your back, I mean you're back.

You're not being picky cos you're wrong. A Brit gallon is defined as 10 pounds of water at 62F. This is 160 avoirdupois ounces and is based on the British gallon of Ale.

When our forbears hightailed it out of Europe, the standard was the Wine gallon which was 128 ounces of water - weight again.

We've kept that so a US pint is 16 ounces and a Brit pint is 20 fl oz. That's why, as well, a US 'Quart' is roughly the same size as a standard bottle of wine or whiskey but a UK Quart is much bigger.

Gets real difficult as the Canadians use the UK measure.

When you hear about us complaining about the price of a gallon of gas, remember we only get 3.7 litres against your 4.5

Oh, and to me, there are two cup sizes... a cup and a mug.

Must be a problem for you buying bras.

 

[matriarch]

Hmmm... I hate to be picky (well, I don't, but it always sounds good if ya say that!), but how can a liquid be measured by weight?

When you all say "oz" I presume you mean "fl. oz"?

Liquids are measured by volume (as in fluid ounces) not by weight (as in ounces).

Must be a Brit thing.

Oh, and to me, there are two cup sizes... a cup and a mug.

Lou - a Brit that drinks tea

Yep, fluid ounces, and considering there's 20 oz to a pint.....some of you people have some serious coffee addiction going on.

I agree Lou, a mug or a cup. That's it. I have recently started drinking coffee again, but only a rather yummy cappucino. Once a day only. After that, it's still my beloved Lady Grey Tea, black, no sugar. Wonderful stuff. And in a mug.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Hi lou, great to see your back, I mean you're back.

You're not being picky cos you're wrong. A Brit gallon is defined as 10 pounds of water at 62F. This is 160 avoirdupois ounces and is based on the British gallon of Ale.

When our forbears hightailed it out of Europe, the standard was the Wine gallon which was 128 ounces of water - weight again.

We've kept that so a US pint is 16 ounces and a Brit pint is 20 fl oz. That's why, as well, a US 'Quart' is roughly the same size as a standard bottle of wine or whiskey but a UK Quart is much bigger.

Gets real difficult as the Canadians use the UK measure.

When you hear about us complaining about the price of a gallon of gas, remember we only get 3.7 litres against your 4.5



Must be a problem for you buying bras.

Silly Brits - a pint (of water) is a pound. Keeps things simple.

(Simple, yeah )

 

[keeblercrumb]

Must be a problem for you buying bras.

The still make C cups like they used to, don't they?

-KC

 

[AllardChardon]

Okay, now I am really confounded. The size of a coffee cup was bad enough and now we are talking pints that vary from country to country. I thought a pint was 16 fluid ounces. Is it all a plot to keep us constantly confused?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I think, rather, that it is an indication of the old saw about the most conservative of people is an old revolutionary. When the colonists became the Americans, they ditched the British king, the British money and a lot of the British spelling and then proceeded to hang on for dear life to everything else. Now you wanna know why Conservatism rules here, even in the Democratic party?

What we should have done was a complete clean sweep starting with fully phoneticizing our spelling and building up an ergonomic metric system based on the old fathom. If you sit down and think a while, you find that such a measuring system would be much more suited to the human body than the silly French version based on the circumferance of the globe through Paris.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

The still make C cups like they used to, don't they?

-KC

Sure, but I wanna see one of lou's M (Mug) cups.

Okay, now I am really confounded. The size of a coffee cup was bad enough and now we are talking pints that vary from country to country. I thought a pint was 16 fluid ounces. Is it all a plot to keep us constantly confused?

Yup! A US pint (16 ounces) is 20% smaller than a UK pint (20 ounces). There's even a problem with bar measures like dram, finger and jigger.

Time we all went metric - litres are so much easier.

Silly Brits - a pint (of water) is a pound. Keeps things simple.

(Simple, yeah )

The Brits always complicate things. That's why we emigrated. Now we've got to educate the Canadians.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Volupt,

Amarula, the liquor with the picture of the elephant on it. Wonderful stuff. My oldest son brought me back a bottle from a cruise to Mexico. Be sure to have some on hand if I ever get back to my hometown of Torrance, CA. I would happily stop by your place on the way...

Allard

It wouldn't be hard! I'm only about 20 minutes south of your old stomping grounds along the 405 and I almost always have at least one bottle on hand. Next summer I'm going to try for a LitWest get together after I "experience" the Chicago version in March. Some weekend in August sounds good, perhaps at a hotel near John Wayne for the combination of proximity to beach, Disneyland, etc. and ease of access for those flying in. I'll make sure I have a couple of bottles for the Party Room.

 

[AllardChardon]

Volupt,

I think that sounds lovely. If only it were not a year away. I am ready as soon as I finish my coffee. I made 50 ounces this morning. 10 cups at 5 ounces each will equal four cups of coffee around here. I hope it is enough!

Allard

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Volupt,

I think that sounds lovely. If only it were not a year away. I am ready as soon as I finish my coffee. I made 50 ounces this morning. 10 cups at 5 ounces each will equal four cups of coffee around here. I hope it is enough!

Allard

I'm slowly getting the impression that perhaps I live just a touch too manic a lifestyle. It seems perfectly normal for me to have to plan events out two years in advance simply to fit them into what is already laid out. Other people find this odd, like their existance isn't packed to the brim already? Mine is.