How Big Is a Coffee Cup? The Answer Isn't Obvious

I hate to break this to you, but a coffee cup on your drip coffee maker may not be as big as you think it is. Perhaps when you bought your 12-cup machine you thought the cup in question was the same 8-ounce cup recognized by Google, your grade school math books, and the measuring cup in your kitchen drawer. I’m sorry to tell you, but this is very much not the case. I test coffee machines for a living and can attest that a “cup” defined by makers of drip coffee machines has nothing to do with the measuring cup you'd use while baking cupcakes. It also bears little relation to the size of an average coffee mug. Photograph: Matthew Korfhage Instead, a coffee “cup” is a weird relic of a different time. It turns out to be a strange and elusive measurement, somewhere between 4 and 6 fluid ounces, as little as half of a standard US measuring cup. Often, a “cup” turns out to be metric. And its precise size will depend entirely on the whims of whoever makes your coffee machine. “There’s rea ... Read full article.