Cup (unit)

Commonwealth of Nations

Metric cup

Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and some other members of the Commonwealth of Nations, being former British colonies that have since metricated, employ a "metric cup" of 250 millilitres. Although derived from the metric system, it is not an SI unit.

A "coffee cup" is 1.5 dL (i.e. 150 millilitres or 5.07 US customary fluid ounces), and is occasionally used in recipes; in older recipes, cup may mean "coffee cup". It is also used in the US to specify coffeemaker sizes (what can be referred to as a Tasse à café). A "12-cup" US coffeemaker makes 57.6 US customary fluid ounces of coffee, which is equal to 6.8 metric cups of coffee.

Canadian cup

Canada now usually employs the metric cup of 250 ml, but its conventional cup was somewhat smaller than both American and imperial units.

British cup

British cookery books and recipes, especially those from the days before the UK's partial metrication, commonly called for quantities measured by ordinary drinking vessels, such as a 'tumblerful' of one ingredient and a 'wineglassful' of another one. Unlike the standard US customary cup, these are not precise units; there is no imperial unit⁠–⁠based culinary measuring cup. Today, recipes normally use imperial fluid ounces or millilitres, and recipes referring to 'cups' are generally assumed either to refer to US customary cups or to be an inexact measure.

The 1894 book Enquire Within Upon Everything states that 1 cup "usually contains about" 6 imperial fluid ounces (fl oz).

The same book also mentions two British culinary measurement units of volume based on drinking vessels: the tumbler ("usually contains about" 10 fl oz, which is 1⁄2 imp pint) and the wine glass ("usually contains about" 2 fl oz). The 'wine glass' here refers to a small glass for serving liquor, not a typical wine glass. Since the UK is not a major producer of wine, typical wine‑glass sizes are those used by the biggest suppliers of wine, especially EU producers, who exclusively use metric measurements. Common wine‑glass sizes are 125 ml (about 4.4 UK fluid ounces or 4.23 US fluid ounces) and 250 ml (about 8.8 UK fluid ounces or 8.45 US fluid ounces), corresponding to 1⁄6 and 1⁄3, respectively, of a standard wine bottle (750 ml; about 26.4 UK fluid ounces or 25.36 US fluid ounces), but these are not generally used as units.

The cookery writer Elizabeth David, writing in The Spectator, referred to the other three British culinary measurement units of volume based on drinking vessels and gave their typical capacities, in contrast to the exact US measure: the breakfast cup (8 fl oz), the teacup (5 fl oz), and the coffee cup (2⁠1/2⁠ fl oz).

Of these, the breakfast cup is the most similar in size to the standard US customary cup and metric cup. It is slightly smaller than the US customary cup since the US fluid ounce is slightly larger than the UK fluid ounce. There is division of labour between these six units of volume, like the tablespoon and the teaspoon.

International

Similar units in other languages and cultures are sometimes translated "cup", usually with various values around 1⁄5 to 1⁄4 of a litre.

Latin American cup

In Latin America, the amount of a "cup" (Spanish: taza) varies from country to country, using a cup of 200 ml (about 7.04 British imperial fluid ounces or 6.76 US customary fluid ounces), 250 ml (about 8.80 British imperial fluid ounces or 8.45 US customary fluid ounces), and the US legal or customary amount.

Japanese cup

The traditional Japanese unit equated with a "cup" size is the gō, legally equated with ⁠2,401/13,310⁠ litre (≈ 180.4 ml/6.35 British imperial fluid ounces/6.1 US customary fluid ounces) in 1891, and is still used for reckoning amounts of rice and sake. The legacy of this is that the rough metric equivalent of the gō, 180 ml, is used for the cups that are sold with rice cookers throughout East Asia, Europe and the United States.

The Japanese later defined a "cup" as 200 ml.

Russian cup

The traditional Russian measurement system included two cup sizes: the "charka" (cup proper) and the "stakan" ("glass"). The charka was usually used for alcoholic drinks and is 123mL (about 4.33 British imperial fluid ounces or 4.16 US customary fluid ounces), while the stakan, used for other liquids, was twice as big and is 246mL (about 8.66 British imperial fluid ounces or 8.32 US customary fluid ounces).

Since metrication, the charka was informally redefined as 100 ml (about 3.52 British imperial fluid ounces or 3.38 US customary fluid ounces), acquiring a new name of "stopka" (related to the traditional Russian measurement unit "stopa"), while there are currently two widely used glass sizes of 250mL (about 8.80 British imperial fluid ounces or 8.45 US customary fluid ounces) and 200 ml (about 7.04 British imperial fluid ounces or 6.76 US customary fluid ounces).

Dutch cup

In The Netherlands, traditionally a "cup" (Dutch: kopje) amounts to 150 ml (about 5.28 British imperial fluid ounces or 5.07 US customary fluid ounces). However, in modern recipes, the US legal cup of 240 ml (about 8.45 British imperial fluid ounces or 8.12 US customary fluid ounces) is more commonly used.

Dry measure

In Europe, recipes normally weigh non-liquid ingredients in grams rather than measuring volume. For example, where an American recipe might specify "1 cup of sugar and 2 cups of milk", a European recipe might specify "200 g sugar and 500 ml of milk". A precise conversion between the two measures takes into account the density of the ingredients, and some recipes specify both weight and volume to facilitate this conversion. Many European measuring cups have markings that indicate the weight of common ingredients for a given volume.