A Cup of Joe?

By Joe Berk

So where did the phrase “a cup of Joe” originate?  For the book, that’s easy.  Good buddy Marcus won the naming contest a few weeks ago with his suggested A Cup O’ Joes, which was the first suggestion to arrive in our Comments section and my immediate favorite.  Yeah, that’s the commercial, and yeah, if you haven’t bought a copy already, please do so.  But from where did the term “a cup of Joe” actually emanate?

There’s no conclusive answer, but like many things, there are lots of opinions (making it a near perfect topic for Internet musing, I suppose).  Here are a few I found.

The Navy Angle

One hypothesis holds that “a cup of Joe” is based on a US Navy booze ban.  Secretary of the Navy Josephus “Joe” Daniels prohibited alcohol on ships in 1914.  After that edict, the strongest thing a sailor could drink on board a US Navy vessel was coffee.  Angry sailors coined “a cup of Joe” to describe their coffee as a result.

The Big Jamoke?

Language historians think “a cup of Joe” didn’t enter the English language until around 1930.  Linguists think the term came from an adaptation of the invented word “jamoke,” which was a combination of java and mocha.  “Jamoke” may have become “Joe.”  Eh, that seems a bit farfetched to me, but the term “jamoke” sounds kind of cool to me.  I like it.

An Average Joe

A third hypothesis is that the word “Joe” means something common.  You know, like “the average Joe” (understandably, not one of my favorite expressions).  Because coffee is such a common man’s drink (a common woman’s drink, too, based on the long line of women I always see at any Starbuck’s ordering obscene $8 coffee-based concoctions), the expression “a cup of Joe” emerged.  I don’t put much stock in this one, either.

So what’s the answer?

Beats me.  Maybe good buddy and coffee empresario Ren of Batdorf & Bronson Coffee can weigh in with his opinion.  Or maybe one of our other readers knows.   Let’s hear what you think.

My take on all the above?  “A cup of Joe” just seems to fit.  I am not the sharpest matzo in the box when I wake up in the morning, and I need my coffee to sharpen my thinking.  “A cup of Joe” is an expression that fits perfectly for me.  I’m enjoying mine now.

Oh, one more thing…don’t forget to buy your own copy of A Cup O’ Joes!  And don’t forget to click on the popup ads.