Objectively speaking, airplane coffee is bad. That’s not news. Now, some more enlightened coffee drinkers (me, that is) appreciate — if not outright enjoy — airplane coffee. It signals the beginning or end of an adventure, and like ginger ale and tomato juice, there’s something about flying that makes you crave it, especially with a good Biscoff. Maybe it’s the altitude.
While companies like Stumptown Coffee and Alaska Airlines are making significant improvements to their in-flight coffee experiences, in-flight coffee is objectively bad in most cases. For coffee addicts who haven’t learned to appreciate the corrupt beauty of in-flight coffee, this can lead to making your own in-flight. Historically, this has meant making an AeroPress, which is frowned upon — for obvious reasons — but recent advances in instant coffee have made such nuisances a thing of the past.
Or so you might think. But that message apparently didn’t get through to one Emirates Airlines passenger who decided to take his entire coffee-making kit with him up a mile high. Luckily, he was kind enough to share it with his fellow passengers.
As reported View from the wingthe whole scene was captured by one Instagram user who happened to be sitting behind the barista on board. And when I say this passenger had a full coffee-making set-up, I want you to understand that this is it. We’re talking v60, filters, a serving dish, a scale, a hand grinder (it looks like a Comandante), coffee, and a kettle. A kettle. His set-up was better than most home coffee makers.
Luckily, after teaching a coffee-making course to his roommates, this coffee lover was kind enough to brew some coffee to share with those around him.
Before you start getting all astute, it should be noted that the Federal Aviation Administration has banned in-flight brewing devices. This particular Emirates flight appears to be outside the US and outside the FAA’s jurisdiction, so perhaps that’s why it was proverbially allowed to fly.
While I’m usually attached to coffee nerds like that, there’s no room for me. If you pull out the entire coffee-making set to make coffee next to me, prepare for large boy problems when turbulence hits and you accidentally spill boiling water on me. The flight will have to be an emergency so one or both of us are forcibly removed, that’s all I’m saying.
At this point, I ask you again to reconsider your feelings about airplane coffee. It’s not good, but it’s also a little bit. You wouldn’t go to Kissatenu, Japan and judge the experience based solely on the taste of the coffee, would you? There’s a coffee for every time and place, and a coffee for every time and place. And the best place for bad coffee is an airplane.
