Convert Dessertspoon (US) (dessertspoon) to Drop (drop) instantly.
About these units
Dessertspoon (US) (dessertspoon)
The US dessertspoon, though rarely used today, traditionally equals 2 teaspoons or about 10 mL. Unlike the UK version, it never gained strong cultural traction in American cooking. Most US recipes skip directly from teaspoons to tablespoons, leaving the dessertspoon as a historical curiosity that occasionally appears in antique cookbooks. Despite its near-obsolescence, understanding the dessertspoon is important for culinary historians and those interpreting older domestic manuals.
Drop (drop)
The drop is one of the oldest fluid measures and originally referred simply to the amount of liquid that naturally forms at the end of a dripping vessel. Because drop size depends on viscosity, surface tension, temperature, and orifice size, early medicine found drops inconsistent and unreliable. Modern medicine and chemistry sometimes define a drop as 0.05 mL, but this is only a convention used for standardized droppers—real drops can vary significantly. Despite its imprecision, the drop survives in everyday language, aromatherapy, essential oils, and household instructions ("add a few drops"). It exemplifies humanity's earliest attempts to quantify small volumes before scientific instrumentation enabled precise micro-measurement.