British Slang For Coffee (Explained!)

The most likely slang term the British will use for coffee is either “brew” or “cuppa”. These usually refer to tea but tend to be interchangeable with just about any hot drink, at least one made at home. American slang terms like “joe” may sometimes be used, but not very often.

The British really don’t have many dedicated slang terms for coffee, then.

Most British slang which is used to refer to coffee is interchangeable with tea, and you’ll often even then still have to specify that you mean coffee.

The British are much bigger tea drinkers than the Americans, so there’s fewer slang terms for coffee.

Let’s find out more.

In This Article

What do the British call coffee?

The British do have a couple of slang terms that can refer to coffee.

The most likely ones you’ll hear used are “brew” and “cuppa”.

For the most part, these typically refer to tea, rather than coffee.

When you make someone a cup of tea, you make them a “brew” or a “cuppa”.

This is a somewhat important distinction, as most people probably would not use either of these terms for a cup of coffee that they’d bought somewhere, rather than made themselves.

For the British, the terms “brew” and “cuppa” are generally interchangeable with virtually any hot drink made from boiling water in the kettle.

Whether it’s a classic cup of English breakfast tea, any kind of herbal tea, or a coffee, you could reasonably say you were having a brew or a cuppa.

So, it may seem somewhat complicated.

A coffee will be called a brew or a cuppa, but this could also refer to quite a few other drinks.

Most commonly, again, it will refer to tea.

For example: “I’m going to put the kettle on, do you want a brew?”

“Oh yes, coffee please,” for example.

The offer of a “brew” implies tea, but you’re being offered a hot drink.

The same is true of cuppa.

Brew is more common throughout the north of England and in Scotland, whereas “cuppa” tends to be more common in the south.

Any specific slang terms that the British do have for coffee which exclude all other things are generally borrowed from American slang.

“Cup of joe”, for example, is not unheard of, though it’s generally a bit tongue-in-cheek and meant to seem out of place since it’s an Americanism.

Other terms, like “java” or “rocket fuel” are also sometimes used.

Why do the British say “brew”?

The term “brew” is the most common slang term for a hot drink in the north of England, so it’s one you’ll definitely hear referring to coffee.

The word itself is extremely old, unsurprisingly. It derives all the way from Proto-Germanic in the first centuries AD, where breuwan meant “to brew”.

As for when it started being used specifically for coffee, that is naturally more recent.

It’s not quite clear when exactly this started, although of course brewing tea has always been part of making it.

It’s probably only in the last few decades that “brew” could refer also to coffee as well as tea.

Again, it is important to note that you might end up with a cup of breakfast tea if you just ask for a brew—the British just like tea a lot more than they like coffee!

Why do the British say “cuppa”?

At the other end of the country, the most likely slang term you’ll hear for tea is “cuppa”.

While this is used throughout England to an extent, you’re much more likely to hear it down south than anywhere else.

The term is a lot more recent etymologically. It’s simply an abbreviation of “a cup of tea”, or coffee in this case.

In this form, this term seems to originate in the 1920s.

That said, there are very ancient words on which it may be based.

Versions of it are found in Late and Vulgar Latin, the word cupa meaning a tub or cask—so not a small cup.

Again, the general assumption when you use this term is going to be that you mean tea, so you’ll need to specify coffee.

Cuppa can just mean any hot drink, so if someone asks you if you want a “cuppa”, you can say that you’d like a cup of coffee.

What else do the British call coffee?

As you can see, then, the British don’t have a lot of specific slang terms for coffee.

Most of them are just interchangeable with tea.

That said, there are a few slang terms you can use that will most likely be understood by most people.

“Cup of joe” is widely understood to mean coffee in Britain, if only due to the common use of it in movies and TV.

Similarly, “Java” is not uncommon and you’ll probably be understood if you use this one in the right context.

Again, though, these terms are far, far less common than simply referring to coffee by one of the same slang terms you would use for tea.

So, for the most part, any slang terms used in British English that specifically refer to coffee are borrowed from the U.S.

For the most part, hot drinks like tea and coffee are lumped together under slang terms like “brew” and “cuppa,” and even then this only really works in the home environment.

It’s unlikely you’d refer to coffee you got in a shop or café as a “brew” or a “cuppa”.

More in British Slang

Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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