How many ounces to peedom?

No, I'm not trying to re-work the old Sublime standby (again), but I was measuring a couple plastic cups this morning, as there truly are no such things as equal sizes. 

I had an XL iced cup from WaWa (gas station / convenience store for those who live outside of  Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Florida). It was a freebie drink with the rewards app last month - I could get any sized fountain drink for nothing. So I chose the biggest size I could get, and rightly filled it up with a diet drink. 🙈

Since I like to reuse / recycle the larger cups (when I can), I saved this one so I can put other drinks in it. 

The unfortunate part is, there's no number on the bottom of the cup, telling you what the total liquid inside is (24 ounces, 32, etc). So a little kitchen math (with a cross reference on Google), the cup measures out at 40 ounces. 

Without ice. 

Depending on how cold you like your drink, you're looking at roughly 32 ounces with cubes in it. Maybe less. Therefore, you're paying more money for the next size down. 

Which is how all places are - order an iced beverage at any fast food joint, and you're apt to get a smaller size in a bigger cup. No wonder why rumors were swirling around a coffee giant charging more for "less ice" requests - you then get more liquid which costs the company more. Ice is free for the facility, charge for the customer. 

Because I felt the need to see what the WaWa cup held, I decided to put it next to the Dunkin' (large) iced coffee and McDonald's (large) fountain cups. 

From left to right: Dunkin' is 32 ounces. McDonald's is 32 ounces. WaWa is 40. 

It looks so skewed, but trust me, it's not. The funny thing is, the WaWa cup is 8 ounces larger, but it looks like it's just a mere inch taller. The Dunks and Mickey D's don't look the same height, but they're the same heft. 

Yet all three fit into each other like Russian Stacking Dolls. 

Weird.

But true to form, not all sizes are created equal, pay what you must, and don't look at the lines on the cups - they are cheat sheets for the workers so they know how much ice and liquid to put into each vessel. 

And now, after drinking a full 40 ounces of water with lemon... I must run to spend a penny.... 

Cheers;