Why Is Coffee Called a Cup of Joe? Meaning, Origins and Java

“A cup of joe” simply means a cup of coffee, usually plain, everyday black coffee. It is American slang that first shows up in print in the early 1930s, including in a 1932 US Navy officers’ manual. Nobody knows for certain where it came from. The most likely explanation is that “joe” grew out of older coffee slang, “java” and “jamoke.” Another idea is that it comes from “Joe,” the name for an ordinary guy, so a cup of joe is the average man’s drink. The popular story that sailors named coffee after Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels is the least likely.

Theory 1: From Java and Jamoke

“Java” has meant coffee since at least the 1850s. It started as “Java coffee,” coffee from the Indonesian island of Java, which was one of the world’s major coffee sources after the Dutch planted it there in the late 1600s, and by the early 1900s Americans used “java” for coffee of any kind. Around the same time, “jamoke,” a blend of “java” and “mocha,” the Yemeni port famous for coffee, became slang for coffee, especially in the military.

The idea is that “jamoke” and “java” were shortened in everyday speech to “joe.” The early evidence fits: one of the first recorded uses of “joe” for coffee is in a 1932 US Navy reserve officers’ manual, whose glossary links it to “java.” That makes this the explanation most word historians favor, though the exact path from “java” to “joe” was never written down.

Theory 2: The Average Joe’s Drink

“Joe” has been American slang for an ordinary man since the 1840s, and in the 1930s and 1940s it turned up everywhere, in phrases like “Joe College,” “Joe Blow” and later “GI Joe.” During the Depression, coffee was the cheap, everyday drink of factory workers, truckers and diner customers. A “cup of joe” could simply mean the common man’s cup. This theory fits the era and the tone of the phrase, but there is no direct evidence that it is the source; it may be that both meanings of “joe” helped the phrase catch on.

Theory 3: Josephus Daniels and the Navy

The most often repeated story involves Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson. In 1914, his General Order 99 banned alcohol on Navy ships and bases. Supposedly, sailors who could no longer drink grumbled about having to drink a “cup of Josephus Daniels,” which became a “cup of joe.”

It is a good story, but it does not hold up well. The Navy had already ended the daily rum ration for enlisted sailors in 1862, so the 1914 order mainly affected the officers’ wine messes. And “joe” for coffee does not appear in print until the early 1930s, almost two decades later, long after Daniels had left office. If sailors had been calling coffee “joe” since 1914, you would expect to see it written down much sooner.

Other Explanations

Some sources credit Joe Martinson, whose Martinson Coffee was a well-known New York brand, saying locals called it “Joe’s coffee.” The timing is possible, but there is no early evidence for it, and the story appears to come from the company’s own later advertising.

Why Is Coffee Called Java?

Coffee is called “java” because of the island of Java in Indonesia. Dutch traders began growing coffee there in the late 1600s, and “Java coffee” became one of the best-known coffees sold in Europe and America. Over time the name was shortened to “java” and used for any coffee. Java still grows coffee today, mostly on estates in the east of the island, and the old Dutch-era “Java” and “Mocha Java” blend names survive on coffee bags. See our history of coffee for how coffee spread around the world.

Other Slang Words for Coffee

Coffee words travel far: in Colombia, “tinto” is the everyday black coffee; see our guide to Colombian coffee. And if you want to know what makes a great everyday cup of joe, start with our guide to the coffee-to-water ratio.