We used to wonder why when we poured out a 12 cup coffee maker carafe that we never got 12 cups of coffee. We get the same question from our Hula Daddy farm visitors. We now know the answer.
On every automatic coffee maker the manufacturer puts measuring marks for the number of cups. If you buy a french press, Clever, siphon, Cafe Solo etc. the box says how many cups it makes. If you think they mean 8 ounce cups, you are a victim of a marketing scam.
All coffee maker manufacturers refuse to use an 8 ounce standard for coffee. Their justification is that a long time ago china coffee sets used to come with 5 and 6 ounce coffee cups. The real reason is that using a fake cup measurement makes their coffee makers look bigger.So if you buy a 12 cup automatic drip coffee maker and expect to get 96 fluid ounces of coffee, you are going to be disappointed when you only get, at most, 72 ounces of brewed coffee, which is 9 cups.
Even worse, some coffee maker manufactures use 4 or 4.5 or 5 or 5.5 ounce “cups.” Customers get fooled by these phony cup definitions and add enough grounds for eight ounce cups. They wind up with extra strong coffee and don’t know why.
You can’t rely on the numbers on the brewer box or on your brewer carafe. The first time your use your brewer fill the carafe with water to the top mark and pour the water into a measuring cup to get the real number of 8 ounce cups. If there are cup numbers on your carafe, divide by the number next to the top mark, then you will know how many “cups” each mark represents. Now you can brew the right amount of coffee for that many cups.
Wow…spot-on here! Mine is a Mr. Coffee and it’s probably 10 years old…I don’t doubt the ambiguity that’s involved here, though…My ratio has always been 5 tablespoon scoops to 6 oz water. My glass carafe does not actually say “oz” either…just all the even number increments up to 12.So I’m pouring in water up to the “6” mark, I take it. Product is not too strong, not too weak. But the end result for me is 3 whole cups of joe altogether. I’m definitely going to try out that tip with my measuring cup, though, and see where those numbers don’t add up. Thanks for the insight.
Jennifer you’re a sadist! 5 Tbsp/6oz. of water, my toes are curling. To each their own I guess.
Jennifer is really using appx 30-36oz of water to 5 tbsp of coffee… She was operating under the assumption that the numbers up the side of her carafe were ounces, when they are in fact a demarcation of 5-6oz cups
A 12 “cup” Mr Coffee carafe is 8oz per gradient. So, if you want to make 4 measured cups of coffee, fill to the 8 on the carafe, and scoop accordingly! Although, there’s always some water that steams off and/or stays in the system so you still dont get the full 32oz.
A full pot of a Mr. Coffee brewer is 60 ounces. The marks on the carafe side indicate a full pot is 12 cups. So Mr Coffee cups are 5 ounces not 8. Four cups in a Mr Coffee carafe is 20 ounces not 32 ounces.
I just measured our Mr. Coffee 12-cup carafe. Filled to the 12 mark, it actually holds 8 cups of water.
Nice
Divide by what number at the top? 12?
Devide by the number next to the top of the water mark. So if you filled the pot to the number 10 divide the ounces by 10 to get the ounces per “cup”
So, basically, if we thought we’ve been getting ripped off all these years, we were right, and we should feel a sense of vindication in that… So why do I still feel swindled then? Remember Mr. Baseball, Joe DiMaggio as the spokesman for Mr. Coffee? I do. So Mr. Baseball was nothing but a corporate shill… Another childhood delusion shattered like a wine glass falling from a drunk ex-wife’s hand. So my cute little five cup Mr. Coffee actually only brewing 2.5 cups is “normal”… Huh. Who’d have thunk? That’s ok, though. That’s all I wanna drink at Oh-Dark-Thirty anyway. That’ why I bought a little 5 cup for working out of town. I’m not brewing a whole pot for myself and two brothers, I’m only brewing what I personally need to wake up at four am. I used to have a 40 oz Sheetz mug with a pig on it, and I used to fill that MF up every morning. I don’t need that much caffeine to wake up anymore, since I don’t stay at the bar all night til it closes.
It’s a cup of coffee not a measuring cup.. so don’t blaspheme Joltin Joe .. my grinder has similar lines inside so it’s easy to match without using scales or measuring cups
My Head A’Splode!
Our church kitchen had 3 coffeepots: 2 “12 cup” drip brewers and a large 50- or 60-cup percolator. I had to work out a chart to put on the wall so we’d know how much grounds to use for each one. The “cup marks” on one of them measured 5 oz., another measured 5.5 oz., and the third measured 6 oz.
OK, my wife just told me we need a new coffee maker. (She fills the carafe to the 12 cup mark. I fill it to the top)
But she complains that after brewing the 12 cups of water, there are only 9 cups of coffee. She thinks the coffee pot is broken and that we need a new one.
I try to explain that it is not broken, that there is still water in the filter and the rest went up in steam. No Lie.
What really got her this morning, I think, is that I already poured off a ‘mug full’ to get the day started before it was done.
It’s really not that hard to figure this stuff out. Take a measuring cup and measure the water as you put it in the coffee pot. You’ll have your answer really fast. 1 cup of water (or 250 ml) at a time and then see how high it goes up in your coffee pot. Then you’ll know forever more how much liquid is actually in the pot.
explain are very good. thanks Dear.
How many oz in a cup?
https://www.worktimecalculator.com/how-many-oz-in-a-cup/
A standard measuring cup is 8 ounces. Coffee “cups” range from 5 to 8 ouncess.
Terrific article; I’ve been wondering about this for quite a while.
Ok, so I bought my Mr.Coffee 2 years ago and for like the first year it brewed a 12 cup carafe. Then it has brewed only 10 cups even if I fill it for 12.
I just tried brewing 6 cups and it brewed only 4 cups. I really think coffee makers are designed to make you think they’re broken but I feel like I’m getting cheated out of a decent cup of coffee.