What is "A Cup of Coffee"?

There's a report out today that three "cups" of coffee are good for you especially regarding some skin cancers. What size is a cup of coffee in your neck of the woods? I've see it anywhere from 4 ozs to 16 ozs. My coffee pot measures a cup at 5 ozs.

Dunno, Jon. I just hook up the IV drip from 7AM to around 11AM

I generally think of a "cup" of coffee as 6 ounces based on nothing more than my own assumptions. But I'm more of a "mug" of coffee person, probably 10 to 12 ounces per. Currently sucking down Green Mountain half-caf from a Keurig.

I generally use a mug - about 8 oz. My coffee maker is marked for 10 cups, but I only get 5-6 cups from a pot. Right now I'm drinking Ethiopian that I roasted myself.

A cup of coffee in these parts in a good size mug. However I am noticing on our monthly breakfasts out that more and more places are serving in small mugs. I hate them, hard to hang onto. They keep coming around and filling the mugs every few minutes, so I really don't know what they are accomplishing.

Around here, a "cup" of coffee tends to be used as a literal term for the most part. That is, someone will get coffee in either a glass mug or a paper cup of "regular" size. I also think it's a term that carries with it an implication that you are just wanting one serving of coffee (perhaps a single cup in the morning just to get you going) yet you may not be an excessive coffee drinker.

Of course, many (myself included) don't really order a "cup" of coffee but order a "large iced coffee", a "large cappucino" etc. In other words, quantity preferences are specified by sizes rather than by terms. If you are ordering coffee anywhere other than a sit-down restaurant this is particularly true. The confusing thing with this is that one place's "large" can vary from another place's large. Or might depend on the type of coffee you are ordering.

I would guess that the large iced coffee I typically enjoy probably contains around three cups. So let's hope those health benefits are true!

Jeff

I generally use a mug - about 8 oz. My coffee maker is marked for 10 cups, but I only get 5-6 cups from a pot. Right now I'm drinking Ethiopian that I roasted myself.

For some bizarre reason, a cup as defined by coffee maker manufacturers, is only 5 oz. For me a "cup" is a typical mug which is usually 10-12 oz. I either have two of these in the morning or two double shots of espresso.

[I either have two of these in the morning or two double shots of espresso.

Begs another question I've had for a while - does espresso have less caffeine than regular coffee? I've heard that the more one roasts the beans the less caffeine they contain.

[I either have two of these in the morning or two double shots of espresso.

Begs another question I've had for a while - does espresso have less caffeine than regular coffee? I've heard that the more one roasts the beans the less caffeine they contain.

That's true, Jon. Many people assume that espresso should have more owing to its dark color, but the darker the roast the less caffeine. Espresso was designed to make a decent cup from old and lower quality beans and it does that job quite well, but filter coffee has more caffeine. (Robusta coffees like Folger's or Maxwell House have even more, along with more quinic acid -- alas that they taste so bad!)

Mark Lipton