Imperial measures

besserwisser

Does anyone know why cafés/coffee shops sell coffee in imperial sizes - 6 fl oz, 8 fl oz, 10 fl oz, etc. rather than millilitres?

I'm curious as to how this came about as I thought that, under law, retailers are obliged to sell in metric amounts (with maybe supplementary information giving the imperial amount). I know there are exceptions (e.g. for pint) but this doesn't appear to be one of them.

mad m

Cmon tell the truth, you ordered an Americano and you got an 8oz cup and thought you were getting a 12oz cup and it probably cost 3 euro..:)

But seriously didn't know it was law!

s3rtvdbwfj81ch

because they're, like, trying to be, like, totes American ya, like.

J_E

It's a lot easier to say and identify.

You can picture an 8oz cup in your head. Can you picture a 236/240ml cup?

236.588ml if you want to be really pedantic.

besserwisser

Actually I can. That's what perplexes me. I genuinely don't know what 8oz is, but I can picture what 200ml, 220ml, 300ml, 330ml, 500ml are, etc. etc.

Anyone know what measures they use for take away coffee in continental Europe? I'm guessing it's not 236.588ml?? Why are we different? Also, as I said before, I don't think selling in imperial measures like these is legal (without at least displaying the equivalent in metric).

la ultima guagua

Its kind of like how ground coffee is sold

UK & Irl : Most often packs of half a pound ( 227gm )
Europe : Most often packs of 250gm

( IIRC a gm is some new measure that M. Bonaparte had thought up - the pound was around long before it )

Was it the same M. Bonaparte who tried to impose 10 hours in a day ?

rubadub

J_E wrote: »

236.588ml if you want to be really pedantic.

that is if it is US fluid oz, UK are a little smaller.

On US food labels they can round it to 30ml for sauces etc, so even more small inaccuracies

besserwisser wrote: »

I genuinely don't know what 8oz is, but I can picture what 200ml, 220ml, 300ml, 330ml, 500ml are, etc. etc.

same here.

Not sure if it is illegal though, I would imagine places selling 1/4lber burgers do not have to also list it in grams. Pretty sure it is different rules for restaurants/cafes/bakeries. They do not have to list a size at all, in starbucks they have those stupid names, and in mcdonalds cokes are small, medium ,large -this suggests they do not need to list a size and so if they do it probably does not have to be ml.

I know there are exemptions for "baked goods intended to be eaten that day" so you do not see nutritional information on bags of dounts in supermarkets.

If the cafe was selling cans of coffee as a retail off the shelf product then I expect they would need to quote ml.

http://metricviews.org.uk/2012/08/the-use-and-abuse-of-fluid-ounces/

J_E

But if you're into coffee at all, you know exactly what a 6/8/12/16oz cup looks like.

We're still weighing everything in metric. It's just a handy size reference and sounds easy to say.

endacl

besserwisser wrote: »

Does anyone know why cafés/coffee shops sell coffee in imperial sizes - 6 fl oz, 8 fl oz, 10 fl oz, etc. rather than millilitres?

Dunno. I ignore both Imperial and metric for food and drink. I always ask for 'large' if I want a big cup, and 'normal' if I don't.

From the same school of thought that brought us the 'dollop' and the 'dash'.