The coffee cup is a culinary measurement unit in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It is named after a small cup for serving after‑dinner coffee. 1 coffee cup is 2 British imperial fluid ounces.�
Measure for Measure
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Elizabeth David Elizabeth David ( Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and books about Europea ...

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The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'', 15th March, 1963 Five British culinary measurement units are related to the coffee cup: the tumbler (10 British imperial fluid ounces),Paragraph 665
page 119, ''Enquire Within Upon Everything'' (1894) the breakfast cup (8 British imperial fluid ounces), the

cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

(6 British imperial fluid ounces), the

teacup A teacup is a cup for drinking tea. It generally has a small handle (grip), handle that may be grasped with the thumb and one or two fingers. It is typically made of a ceramic material and is often part of a set which is composed of a cup and ...

(5 British imperial fluid ounces), and the

wine glass A wine glass is a type of Glass (drinkware), glass that is used for drinking or wine tasting, tasting wine. Most wine glasses are stemware (goblets), composed of three parts: the bowl, stem, and foot. There are a wide variety of slightly differe ...

(2 British imperial fluid ounces).Page 11,
The Feill Cookery Book
' (1907) All six units are the traditional British equivalents of the US customary cup and the metric cup, used in situations where a US cook would use the US customary cup and a cook using metric units the metric cup. The breakfast cup is the most similar in size to the US customary and metric cups. Which of these six units is used depends on the quantity or volume of the ingredient: there is division of labour between these six units, like the tablespoon and the teaspoon. British cookery books and recipes, especially those from the days before the UK's partial metrication, commonly use two or more of the units above simultaneously: for example, the same recipe may call for a 'tumblerful' of one ingredient and a 'wineglassful' of another one; or a 'breakfastcupful' or 'cupful' of one ingredient, a 'teacupful' of a second one, and a 'coffeecupful' of a third one. Unlike the US customary cup and the metric cup, a tumbler, a breakfast cup, a cup, a teacup, a coffee cup, and a wine glass are not measuring cups: they are simply everyday drinking vessels commonly found in British households and typically having the respective aforementioned capacities; due to long-term and widespread use, they have been transformed into measurement units for cooking. There is no British imperial unit⁠–⁠based culinary measuring cup.

References

{{Reflist Measurement Units of volume Imperial units Cooking weights and measures

See also

References