Coffee cup sizes in America have evolved over time, particularly after Starbucks popularized larger drink sizes in the late '80s. Esposito notes that prior to this shift, the typical coffee cup was around 5 ounces, similar to a British teacup, which many still consider reasonable. With Starbucks introducing a new language for coffee sizes, smaller cups became rare, leading to an inflation of cup sizes across cafes and a misunderstanding of what a "cup" of coffee actually means in consumers' minds. Coffee maker companies have yet to address these size discrepancies in their products.
Blame It on the Mermaid You can demarcate coffee cups in America into two periods: B.S. and A.S. Everything began to change in the late '80s, Esposito says, somewhere around the time a former Xerox salesman named Howard Schultz decided to take a Seattle-founded coffee shop onto the national stage. After Starbucks, coffee cups got bigger.
"They created their own language for all of their drinks and sizes and everything. So a 'small' to Starbucks is really kind of like a 'large' everywhere else," says Jemison, the Portland coffee machine salesperson.
"From my memory, until Starbucks, most of the coffee drinks were reasonable. I mean, the cups were a reasonable size," Esposito confirms to WIRED. "And then the larger sizes were introduced."
"When people come in and ask for a coffee maker and they look at '12 cups,' we automatically explain, 'That's not the size of, you know ... 12 of your cups,'" she said.
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