Cup Sizes

Why are Americans obsessed with huge cups? Go almost anywhere else in the world and you'll find that (in most cases) the largest cup of coffee you can order is 12 oz (except that no place else in the world uses ounces to measure...). In Italy, 8 oz is a large cup of coffee; In the US, 20 oz is on the small side for large cups while 8 oz might not even be on the menu (e.g. The Green Beast). My wife once saw a guy carrying a gargantuan (100 oz?) cup of coffee out of gas station. The cup was as large as his abdomen.

"Please give me one barrel of your freshest coffee and a hose to suck it through."

What? I am afraid that we aren't looking for quality in coffee, but rather the best dollar-to-ounce ratio possible. Is that really the direction we want to go? Isn't 20 oz a bit much to injest at one sitting? Most of us wouldn't drink a 20 oz glass of milk at home, yet we have no qualms about ordering a latte that size. It's as if we lose all sense of proportion when we enter a coffee shop. "Give me the biggest cup you have!" is our rallying cry.

Sadly, I don't think there's any reversing this trend. We are a country that demands "bigger and better" and that usually equates the two. From coffee to cars, we want the biggest product possible.

Please, let's work together on this. Let's pledge to each other that from here on out we will drink out of normal sized cups!

-Larry J.P.