coffee maker sizing help

[sonia]

I am looking to sell a Chemex glass pour-over coffee maker/carafe and am struggling with whether to call it a 5-cup 6-cup or 8-cup. The one I have looks to be the exact same size/shape as this “8-cup” one for sale at World Market:

https://tinyurl.com/y5nyfaqk

Both mine and the World Market one are: 5.25″Dia. x 9″H, 40 oz. capacity.

Here’s where my confusion sets in. How can a 40 oz capacity be called a 8-cup coffee maker? Each cup of coffee is just 5 ounces? What!?! This is not something specific to World Market. There’s a 6-cup carafe for sale on Amazon that has a 30 oz capacity, so same 5 ounce cup size.

In case you can’t tell by now, I am not a coffee drinker, and did not grow up in a household where coffee was made every morning, nor did we have a drip coffee machine like everyone else did in the 80s. I have a small French press somewhere in the back of a cabinet just in case for guests, but no actual coffee.

I found this blog entry

https://www.swiftrivercoffee.com/blog/2019/3/6/how-to-brew-the-perfect-pot-of-coffee

that talks about the serving size of typical coffee makers being 6 ounces. So I guess Chemex takes that down by an ounce? Strange. Or… hey, maybe the serving size got established way back when people drank coffee out of those delicate china teacups with their pinkies sticking out? That would make sense I guess. I was just nervous advertising my item as making 8 cups of coffee when it really only fits five 8 ounce cups.

So does everyone who purchases a coffee maker just get the size that is double the # of cups of coffee they need to make?

This is almost as bad as when I found out a few years ago that two-by-fours are not exactly 2″x4″.

 

 

 

[sonia]

Ok – never mind. Just saw another listing on amazon that clearly states:

All CHEMEX Coffeemakers are measured using 5 oz. as 1 cup

Still strange, though!

 

[sonia]

let’s see if this comes out clearer:

All CHEMEX Coffeemakers are measured using 5 oz. as 1 cup

 

[Antique Frog]

I reckon a 40 US fluid ounce serving would make 4 mugs of coffee. The mug I’ve just drunk out of is 0.25 litre.

Seems to be the rule in the UK that in cafes if the liquid is poured out by the staff you get it in a mug, but if you have a pot of tea or coffee at the table you get cups. There was a trend a few years back for vintage cafes, serving tea in a random selection of florally-decorated old tea cups, but that seems to have died off. As have cat cafes 🙂

[Ryanne]

Yes “cups” in some coffee maker terms are 5oz, not 8oz. which is super annoying, I agree!

https://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/2317/why-is-a-cup-of-coffee-not-6-oz

[Sharyn]

Funny. We recently had to purchase a new carafe for our small coffee maker, and I had noticed it defines a cup as 4 oz. We were just making coffee:

4 oz as 1 cup

I guess a cup of coffee is whatever the company wants to define it; it is different than a measuring cup.

[Jay]

We have a “10 cup” drip coffee maker. I can drink the whole pot by filling three of my large coffee mugs.

[Steven S]

The first time I remember seeing a Chemex coffee maker was while re-watching the Mary Tyler Moore Show a couple of years ago, she used one  all the time but strangely most often late at night after a date.

I’ve wanted one ever since but have been waiting to find one in the wild, so far no luck. I have a small 2 cup pour over that suffices for now.

I too was confused by coffee cup measurements the first time I sold one. Glad you sussed it out.

[sonia]

“strangely most often late at night after a date.”

For the last 20 years or so, my mom has taken to drinking coffee in the evening and it hasn’t affected her ability to get to sleep! So weird. She still doesn’t use any sort of coffee maker – just a regular pot and a strainer I think. She was a WWII refugee as a child (family lost everything except the clothes on their backs), so the concept of spending money on all sorts of single-function thingamajigs is wasteful and silly to her.

Thanks all for your input into my coffee culture education. 🙂

 

[Retro Treasures WV]

And here I was feeling like a glutton for polishing off my 5 “cup” french press in one sitting. I just looked and the mug I drink from is a 20oz mug.

 

Here’s  a question for the rest of you: Does anyone actually use 2 tablespoons of coffee per brewed cup? That seems like MASSIVE overkill – even moreso if they are considering a cup as 5oz. I use 3 heaping teaspoons of coffee in my  full french press and that seem like alot.

[junque redux]

We use 3 tablespoons (of whole beans) in our french press, which is probably something equivalent to the amount you use, once ground.  I can’t imagine using 10 tablespoons.

[Jay]

As an engineer, I assume you’ll appreciate this precision. In the US, we strangely do not use scales in the kitchen to weigh ingredients. Measuring with scoops and spoons is very imprecise. In Europe, most kitchens use scales for ingredients (and use the metric system).

For coffee in our house, we use a scale to measure water/coffee: https://bluebottlecoffee.com/preparation-guides/french-press#:~:text=French%20press%20coffee%20calls%20for,have%20coffee%20onto%20your%20grounds.

[Retro Treasures WV]

So per that site, I should be using 3.4 tablespoons of coffee for 20 oz of water.  My heaping teaspoons are close to a tablespoon volume wise each. Good to know that what I’m doing is close to what is ideal.

I don’t put a bit of water in first, I just dump it all in. I’ll have to try the bloom thing.

My favorite part of a french press is that by the time the coffee is brewed, it is cooled down a bit. Once I put my cream in I’m ready to take drinks of coffee. ACTUAL drinks. I’m not playing that sippy sip BS game.

[Retro Treasures WV]

So follow-up, I did the “bloom” step this morning that I’ve never done before. Maybe it was a coincidence, but it seemed the chocolate flavors came out this time much more. I wasn’t even really paying attention to check for flavors, it just hit me that this cup was really chocolatey.

 

Pretty cool!

[Jay]

Once you start drinking freshly roasted coffee, you can really bring out interesting flavors.

I love me some big bags of affordable coffee at Costco, but that coffee is usually heavily roasted to keep it shelf stable for long periods. Freshly roasted coffee will usually only stay fresh for about a month before it starts losing its flavor.

If you want dip your to into the coffee world, try James Hoffman: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ

He does a good job explaining things scientifically and stays on the edge of coffee technology.

[Retro Treasures WV]

Curse you Jay… Now I spend my days listening to James Hoffman talking, cruising auto grinding coffee makers online, and making plans to dig out the few moka pots I have in my death piles so I can play with them.

 

This crap is clearly a drug. I feel so happy and ‘complete’ once I have my cup a day.

Next thing you know I’m gonna be pulling out flannel shirts and chukka boots from my death piles to wear and growing out a trendy beard.

[Jay]

It’s a fun hobby. We really enjoy coffee in our lives so its fun to be apart of culture and explore where it can take us. Hey, we spent $100k on a coffee shop/roastery because we enjoy it so much.

Better than building a methlab in our back building 🙂

[Author]

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