Teaspoon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Teaspoon (disambiguation).
A teaspoon is a small spoon that can hold about 5 milliliters of liquid. It is commonly used to stir the contents of a cup of tea or coffee. Teaspoons with longer handles are commonly used for ice cream.
The teaspoon is also used as a unit of volume, especially in cooking recipes and pharmaceutic prescriptions. It is abbreviated in English as t. or tsp. (German: TL, from Teelöffel). The modern definition of 1 teaspoon is 5 mL, defined, for example, in U.S. federal law (21CFR101.9(b)(5)(viii)). The same definition is used in many other countries (e.g., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom). Older definitions of the unit teaspoon include
- 1 U.S. customary teaspoon = 1/6 U.S. fl. oz (4.93 mL)
- 1 Imperial teaspoon = 1/8 Imperial fl. oz (3.55 mL)
A related unit is
- 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons (4 in Australia)
A common teaspoon used for stirring a hot drink is not usually designed to contain any standard volume. Special teaspoons are designed and used for obtaining precise measurements according to this unit of measurement.
Other spoon sizes include the tablespoon and the dessert spoon. Many recipes call for 'heaping' (or 'heaped' in British English) spoon measures. A 'heaping/heaped tablespoon', for example, refers to an inexact volume of the required ingredient, obtained by scooping it up with a tablespoon and not levelling it off.
Much less common is the coffee spoon, which is a smaller version of the teaspoon.
