Metric Tablespoons to Metric Teaspoons (tbsp to tsp)

1 metric tablespoon equals 3 metric teaspoons exactly.

1 metric tablespoon = 3 metric teaspoons

How to convert metric tablespoons to metric teaspoons

To convert metric tablespoons to metric teaspoons, multiply the number of metric tablespoons by 3. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply metric teaspoons by 0.3333333333 (rounded).

metric teaspoons = metric tablespoons × 3

Example: 10 metric tablespoons = 30 metric teaspoons.

Pints, quarts, gallons and fluid ounces differ between the US and the UK. Units are labeled 'US' or 'imperial' to avoid confusion.

About these units

Metric Tablespoon (tbsp)

Cooking & barCurrent unit

Exactly 15 mL, used in most countries.

Fifteen milliliters is the working size of the tablespoon in most of the world, and it is a rounded figure. Older customary values were about 14.8 mL for the US and about 14.2 mL for the UK, and modern UK and US measuring spoons are both treated as 15 mL in most contexts. The tablespoon itself dates to the early 1700s, when it first appeared in place settings for soup.

The 15 mL spoon is a staple in recipes everywhere. Three metric teaspoons make a tablespoon, and 16 and two thirds make a 250 mL metric cup. Australia is the notable exception, using a 20 milliliter tablespoon and counting four teaspoons to it, so a recipe from one country can taste off in another. Check which spoon a cook has in mind: scoops of oil, honey or baking powder amount to a third more in Australia.

1 metric tablespoon = 0.015 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Tablespoon; Wikipedia: Metric cup

Metric Teaspoon (tsp)

Cooking & barCurrent unit

Exactly 5 mL, used in most countries.

Five milliliters is the metric teaspoon, a figure so tidy that it has become the working definition for medicine and food labels. The traditional British teaspoon was an imperial fluid drachm, one eighth of an imperial fluid ounce, about 3.55 milliliters, and the American one was 4.93 mL. US nutrition labeling law now defines a teaspoon as exactly 5 milliliters.

The 5 mL teaspoon matters most when dosing medicine. Kitchen spoons vary widely, with one Greek survey of 71 household teaspoons finding volumes from 2.5 to 7.3 mL, so measuring spoons, syringes and calibrated cups are the safer tools. It also anchors the metric cooking system: three teaspoons make a 15 mL tablespoon, and fifty fit in a 250 mL metric cup. Australia keeps a 5 mL teaspoon but counts four of them in its larger 20 mL tablespoon.

1 metric teaspoon = 0.005 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Teaspoon; 21 CFR 101.9: nutrition labeling household measures; Wikipedia: Metric cup

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