cup of Joe
informal phrase

- an informal term for a cup of coffee

- a serving of brewed coffee, chiefly North American in usage

Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary

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PHRASE ORIGIN

Nobody can prove where this one came from, which is part of its charm. The likeliest story is also the dullest: “Joe” was simply the most ordinary man’s name in early twentieth-century America, the everyman, so a “cup of Joe” meant the common man’s everyday drink. One of the first written sightings of “Joe” for coffee turns up in a 1941 book of diner language, “Hash House Lingo” by Jack Smiley.

Two more colourful theories refuse to die. The first credits Josephus “Joe” Daniels, US Secretary of the Navy, who banned alcohol aboard ships in 1914, supposedly leaving sailors with nothing stronger than coffee to grumble over. The second points to Martinson Coffee, founded in New York in 1898 by the larger-than-life Joe Martinson, whose neighbours may have called the brew “Joe’s coffee.” Both make a good story, though the plain “everyman” explanation is the one most word historians support.

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THE ALLURE OF COFFEE

- Coffee is the second most consumed beverage globally after water, around 2.25 billion cups of coffee are drunk worldwide every day (Researchgate).

- Finland leads, with people averaging ~4 cups/day or ~12 kg (26+ lbs) of coffee per person annually. Nordic countries dominate the per-person rankings (Worldatlas).

- Beethoven was addicted to coffee and famously counted out exactly 60 beans per cup for his ideal brew (biographer Anton Schindler).

- Paul Erdős routinely drank astonishing quantities of coffee while working 19-hour days and publishing over 1,500 papers,… he said "A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems" (Wikipedia).

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS

a brew, americano, battery acid (jocular), brewski, caffeine fix, cappuccino, cortado, CUP OF JOE, cup of mud, daily grind, decaf, demitasse, dirt (slang), drip, espresso, filter coffee, flat white, French press, fresh pot, go juice, instant, jamocha, jamoke, java, jitter juice, joe, latte, liquid energy, long black, macchiato, mocha, morning brew, mud, percolator brew, perk, ristretto, rocket fuel, wake-up juice

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SMUGGLE today's word into a conversation today, say something like:

“Would Beethoven and Erdös have been so creative without their daily CUPS OF JOE?”

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