Cranberries (fresh)

One US cup of cranberries (fresh) weighs 95 grams. Going the other way, 100 grams is about 1.05 cups.

Also called fresh cranberries, cranberries, cranberries frozen, frozen cranberries, whole cranberries, raw cranberries.

Fresh cranberries are now the lightest fresh fruit on the site. USDA SR Legacy publishes raw cranberries at 95 grams per cup whole (density 0.4015 g/mL), and King Arthur publishes fresh or frozen at 99 grams per cup. The 4.2% gap between them is well inside the 10% milled tolerance and gives medium confidence in the published figure of 95 g/cup. Both sources describe the same standard state: whole raw berries loose in the cup, without shaking or packing.

The physical explanation for the low density is that cranberries have internal air chambers. A ripe cranberry actually floats in water, which is how commercial harvesters gather them: fields are flooded, the berries are dislodged from the vines, and they bob to the surface for skimming. That same air-cavity structure means each berry contributes only about 40% as much mass per unit volume as an equivalent-sized solid fruit would. A cup of cranberries at 95 grams has a density of 0.4015 g/mL, which is 40% of water and roughly half the density of most solid fresh berries. Cranberries are also small (about 1 centimeter across) and roughly spherical, so they pack with substantial interstitial air on top of the internal air chambers, compounding the low density.

The ordering across the site's fresh berries is now a clean physical narrative. Fresh cranberries at 95 g/cup are the lightest, followed by fresh raspberries at 123 g/cup (hollow drupelet aggregates), fresh blueberries at 140-170 g/cup (solid small spheres), and sliced strawberries at 166 g/cup (flat discs that stack efficiently). The ordering tracks internal structure: air chambers first, hollow cavities second, solid whole berries third, cut and stacked pieces last. Each step represents a real change in either the fruit's own density or the packing behavior of the shape it presents to the cup.

Compared to the existing dried-cranberries entry, this fresh version is much lighter per cup. Dried cranberries publish at 114 to 160 g/cup (sugar category), reflecting the shift from a low-density fresh fruit with 87% water to a small dense particulate with 16% water. The mass of the sugar and structural fiber is preserved through drying, but the fruit shrinks in volume as water evaporates, producing a denser piece. King Arthur's chart lists dried cranberries at 114 g/cup, which sits at the low end of our published range for that entry.

Category assignment is milled, following the fresh berry precedent established by blueberries-fresh and raspberries-fresh. Fresh whole small round fruits belong in milled rather than sugar because they are water-containing solid pieces (even with internal air) rather than crystalline or hard particulate solids. The sugar category is reserved for granulated sugars, salts, chocolate chips, and small dried fruits like raisins and currants, all of which pack as small hard particles. The dried version of cranberries fits sugar cleanly at 114-160 g/cup, but the fresh version does not.

USDA also publishes a chopped state at approximately 111 g/cup, a 17% density increase from whole. That is a smaller gap than the whole-to-sliced difference for strawberries (15%) or the drupelet reorganization gaps seen in flax and pumpkin seeds. Cranberries are already close to a natural packing limit as whole berries because they are small and roughly spherical; chopping helps some but does not transform the packing behavior the way slicing does for a large irregular fruit like strawberries.

Confidence is medium. Two authoritative sources (USDA SR Legacy and King Arthur) agree at 4.2%, and the physical mechanism is clear. Bakers should treat 95 g/cup as accurate for fresh whole cranberries in a scooped and leveled cup. Frozen cranberries follow the same figure because freezing does not meaningfully change the berry's packing density, which is why King Arthur groups fresh and frozen in a single row.