Couldn't a more coarse grind lower the density?

Is it somehow related to the fact that although my coffeemaker *says* it makes 12-cups, it realistically makes only 7-8 cups?

In most other countries 3 pounds of coffee only makes about 10 cups of coffee.

Coffee Lite! W/ More Water!

Save your money, go to Starbucks.

@Applekid: I think that's the most reasonable possibility. It may or may not be true, but it at least makes sense.

I know how you can get 1000 cups! Just add water!

Or, you can read the label where it says "90 MORE CUPS ::small text:: than 39 oz"

Google says "39 oz to lbs" = 2.4375 lbs

so the more cups, isn't referring to the older packaging, but to the step down packaging.

misleading? sure. but not a scooby doo mystery

They are measuring using Italian 4 ounce cups, as opposed to the French 6 ounce cups, as opposed to the British 8 ounce cup, as opposed to the American 12 ounce cup.

@kidincredible:
haha, or you can not read the article in the first place and not understand the confusion

i = fail

@wonderkind: Baaaaaaahahahahahahaha. That's the best joke all day! :D

Folgers drinkers must like their coffee weak, anyway. Most other brands of coffee, as well as coffee maker instruction manuals, recommend 2 Tbs per 6 oz serving. From what I've read, ground coffee is about 5 grams per Tbs so 3 lbs (1360.8 grams) divided by 2 Tbs (10 grams) only makes 136 cups, not 380.

Pity they didn't label it: Now with 12.5% less density! I imagine they could have turned density into the new fat with a little help from marketing...

@failurate: I'm going to join kidincredible in the failure read the article/look at pictures corner of shame.

@kidincredible: @failurate: Don't worry, that's exactly what I thought the first time I looked at it.

@kidincredible: ha ha pwnd.

even a different grind doesn't explain how you can get more following the same directions...

Don

@whoneedslight:

[www.askmehelpdesk.com]

Basically, coffeemakers have been hit with the shrink ray too. A "cup" of coffee has been (re)defined as 5 oz.

So your 12-"cup" coffeemaker makes 60oz. of coffee, or 7-8 8oz. cups of coffee.

We've secretly replaced their dark, sparkling Folgers crystals with . . . fewer dark, sparkling Folgers crystals. Let's see if they notice.

They just burnt the bean a little more so that way it takes less coffee to get that Folger's burnt taste!

are they including their own "tablespoon"?

Maybe the price of sawdust increased so they were forced to increase the coffee to sawdust ration, thus allowing for more cups of coffee with less "coffee" grounds.

dark crystals have been replaced with dark matter. ergo, more cups.

duh.

Sounds like fun with rounding.

they're apparently basing it on the "1/2 Measuring Cup" to 10 servings ratio. Notice is doesn't say "1/2 cup", it's "1/2 measuring cup". Obviously you're supposed to use a smaller measuring cup with the new packaging.

@wickedpixel: I suppose, but they didn't change the per-cup measure; how are they arguing that there are 380 tbsp of grounds in a smaller canister than one with 360 tbsp of grounds in it?

Granted, most people don't make coffee by the single 6oz. cup, but still.

I'm Maxwell House kinda guy. That shit is good to the last drop.

I think Folger's is counting on the Grocery Shrink Ray affecting cup sizes.

@dorianh49: Win!

More moisture in the grounds. They dry it and roast it less lowering coast increasing weight and decreasing yield.

It says it makes "up to" so many cups, not that it can make that many cups. So they just raised the ceiling, not the floor. Technically speaking, it can make UP TO 1 million cups, which means no more than 1 million cups can be made from that can. And that's true.

I'm pretty sure that's the BS marketing logic. :P

@EBounding: I would like to buy your million cup coffee.

@EBounding: Beat me to it.

If they are doing a larger, more voluminous grind, then wouldn't there be less surface area of coffee for the hot water to pass through. This would dilute the coffee even more than just the volumetric difference.

@whoneedslight : A cup is 8 ounces.. NOT 12 ounces like your mug holds.

@EBounding: True, but that's still flat out deceptive to just list a higher number for no reason.

It's because of crap like this that I always use only the unit price labeling. Caveat: Some stores don't show unit pricing on the shelves, and occasionally I catch one with bogus math or with different units for different brands of the same product.

@donopolis: sure it does. The directions use tablespoon, which is a measure of volume, the container itself is measured in lbs, which is a measure of weight. They are unrelated measurements.

See kids, math is important.

@sean77:
I concur. But it certainly is the sneakiest use yet of the Shrink Ray (and yes, I'm one of those people that's completely sick of it).

There seems to be a double shrink effect going on here, unless they've found a way to pack more flavor into less bean.

Maybe if the poster would have taken a scoop from the old coffee and compared it to a scoop from the new coffee, we would have a better picture of this mystery. If they reduced the amount of the same coffee, then chances are that they would also reduce the size of the container to avoid the visual impression of getting less coffee. The containers look to be the same size, so it might point to a new processing technique. Explore all angles first.

Unfortunately, many get caught up in the hysteria before getting to that point.

Meg, I believe you truncated instead of rounding to the nearest decimal. Although this is not a material error, it's still important that I had to lower your grade to an "A-".

Using volume for measuring dry goods is a sham anyway. I can show you a tablespoon of Folger's that weighs 4 grams and another tablespoon that weighs 7. The fudge factor that changes 360 cups to 380 cups is well within the packing margin of error.

@pfblueprint: Oh yeah, it's definitely deceptive.

Anything that puts less of this swill in me at breakfast is a real benefit. Thanks Folgers !

@chucklebuck: YEAH!!

someone said that the label states 100% coffee, so sawdust is out...
however, if they have raised the ratio of robusto coffee to arabica, they can get away with using less coffee per cup since robusto has a stronger flavor.

Who would actually count the number of cups it makes and write back to complain. They label is designed to make you want to grab the package with 380 cups on it and put in the humongous shopping cart. It appears even more absurd to me, because I have been roasting my own beans for years. The cost $3-$4.50 a pound. No comparison.

I think the thing to keep in mind is that anyone buying 3 pounds of pre-ground coffee is clearly not concerned with the taste of their coffee.

Somehow they squeezed an extra 5.96 ounces of prepared coffee out of every ounce weight of coffee.

@MrFreshy: but what if it's sawdust from the coffee plant stalks? eh, smart guy?

This shrinkage has been happening since the 1970s when the likes of Folgers, etc., suddenly started shrinking their cans in response to price rises. How else can you explain the 3 lb 4oz can to begin with. Trace its roots back to 1978 and you'll find that it was originally a 4-lb can.

Randomly, this has happened every time the price of coffee has dramatically increased for the past 100 years... They suggest "use less coffee" or "re-use grinds" -- I saw the ads in a book called "higher grounds", but I'm sure you can find them on the interweb if you look for old coffee advertisements.

A coffee cup is officially calculated as around 5 ounces I think, I can't seem to find it online after a quick search (Anyway between 4-6).

Coffee producers stop planting when the price is low, and plant extra when the price is high. The problem is it takes 3 years for a plant to start producing enough beans to pay for itself, and by then, 3 years of heavy planting means the price drops dramatically for a few years so they stop planting until old trees start dying off, demand exceeds supply, and the planting starts again.

This is one of the main reasons to buy fair wage coffee -- the price is guaranteed so they don't boom/bust as other coffee plantations have for over 150 years, leading to a more stable planting policy with an emphasis on using the land for a lot longer, leading to more ecologically friendly plantations.

@donopolis: Coarser grind = more air pockets between each crystal = less density = less weight for the same volume.

Any questions?