Customer Reviews

Norpro 3080 Mini Measuring Spoons, 5 Piece Set

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is bizarre.

We have a product widely sold online who's purpose is to measure small amounts of a substance with, one assumes, some reasonable degree of accuracy. But the manufacturer, rather than mark the spoons with a useful unit of measure chose to stamp cutesy names on them that suggest a rough approximation rather than an actual measure. As if they didn't even know themselves what the true sizes were. And the retailers offering these spoons are uniformly mute as far as describing them any more precisely.

But, nevertheless, customers love them. Many reviewers here stress how handy they for *accurately* measuring out small quantities - in spite of the fact that they DON"T ACTUALLY KNOW what fraction of a teaspoon they're dolling out. Why do I say this? Because every previous attempt i've found to translate the cutesy names into standard units of measure - here and at other O/L retailers - is wrong. All of them. I know this because I did something that *apparently* no one has ever done before. I actually *measured* the volume of these measuring spoons.

I used a syringe graduated in hundredths of a CC and filled each spoon till it was full. I did this 3 times & averaged the results. Then I converted CC's into fractions of a teaspoon. With one exception - the spoons *do* follow some sort of logical size progression as they get smaller and they all appear to be within approximately 5% of their expected nominal size. Here's the conversion:

TAD = 1/4 tsp
DASH = 1/12 tsp <<<< not 1/8 >>>
PINCH = 1/16 tsp
SMIDGEN = 1/32 tsp
DROP = 1/64 tsp

I bought these mini measure spoons to measure medicine for my small puppy and because there were 5 in the set as opposed to the others for sale that have three or four per set. The actual measurements come out a bit strange...., when carefully checked against my standard teaspoon measure are as follows. 1/5 tsp, 1/11 tsp, 1/16 tsp, 1/32 tsp, 1/64 tsp.
I will use them and I scratched the actual measurements into the handle so I would remember.
I hope this helps others who are considering the purchase.

I have to give my puppy powdered medicine in a very small amount - one half of 1/16 of a teaspoon. I had been just shaking out a small portion but when I saw these spoons, I ordered them immediately. Now I know she is getting the right amount of medicine in her tiny body regularly. I am so glad I bought them!

I ordered these in order to measure small amounts of the vitamin c crystals and potassium granules for my cats. I finally found the veterinarian recommended 250mg cranberry extract soft gels, but commonly the lowest dose is 300mg. One cat had painful cystitis and I decided to treat the other one as a preventative measure since this affliction is common in male cats. I received these today and they seem sturdy enough, worth the price, and are stamped in large print. Since it's not imprinted on the spoons what each one translates to in either grams or teaspoons, I looked it up. I have not actually measured these spoons to see if this link is accurate (a tad looks large more like a 1/2 tsp. to me) but here goes:
"* Tad -- 1/8th teaspoon
* Dash -- 1/16th teaspoon (or less than 1/8th teaspoon)
* Pinch -- 1/16th teaspoon (or 1/24th teaspoon)
* Smidgen (smidge, for short) -- 1/32nd teaspoon (or 1/48th teaspoon)
* Drop -- 1/60th teaspoon (or 1/80th teaspoon or 1/120th teaspoon)
* Hint -- a trace
(At the very least, there is general agreement that these are in descending order according to size (although if you believe that a drop is 1/120th of a teaspoon, it is quite possible that your hint is bigger)." If you want to read the entire link:[...]. It's an interesting trivia quick read.

The spoons were a gift for someone who says she can't cook "by taste", which is how she has been given some recipes. The recipes call for a smidgen or a dash and she has no idea how much that is. These measuring spoons fit the bill perfectly. She was very pleased with her gift.

My daughter-in-law got some of these spoons for a wedding gift and I thought they were so adorable she got me a set. I took them to work and they were so admired there, I got a set for each of the women.

I ordered 2 sets of these spoons. They are great. I only wish for one thing, that they had the teaspoon equivalents on it. I have to look them up. But I was so happy to find them.

I bought these to measure Stevia extract. It's critical to measure Stevia extract accurately - it becomes bitter when you use too much, proper measurement makes all the difference in the world, and gives you a perfect cup/whatever every time! These spoons are perfect for that purpose. They are stainless steel on a keyring type holder. The metal is a little on the thin side, but probably not too thin, it still takes a fair amount of force to bend them. And any thinner they would probably be very hard to manufacture. They're also $6 (;-)

I purchased these to measure very small quantities of things, particularly stivia. They work great and I feel were worth the price. Stivia is good but you have to be able to measure it correctly or it tastes terrible, and these did the trick.

These spoons are 2x as big as they should be - a tad is 1/8 tsp, these have it at 1/4 - and so on down, each one is 2x what it should be. Would I had known... I need a REAL drop... 1/128 tsp. At least Amazon gets 5 stars, ordered late on Thursday, in hand Saturday afternoon, 2 day shipping included w/Prime.