United Airlines will soon be introducing cold brew onboard its flights. This was first rumored a couple of weeks ago, and is now official — talk about an exciting and long overdue development!
In this post:
United Airlines to serve illy cold brew onboard flights
As of July 1, 2024, United will start serving illy cold brew onboard flights, in all cabins on most flights over 300 miles. It will be available for purchase in economy, while it will be complimentary in premium cabins. United will be serving the “classico” cold brew in an 8.45 ounce can.
United has a longstanding partnership with illy, and serves brewed illy coffee onboard, as well as illy coffee in its lounges. So it makes sense that United is also partnering with illy when introducing cold brew.
While United won’t be the first US airline to offer cold brew or iced coffee, the airline will have it available on the most flights. Delta serves Explorer cold brew, but it’s only available on select premium routes, so you won’t find it on most flights.
In early 2023, Southwest also started serving Community Coffee’s Espresso + Cream iced coffee. However, the airline has already cut that. Good riddance, as far as I’m concerned, as it’s more of a sugar drink than a coffee, given that the 8.5 ounce bottle has 150 calories and 20 grams of sugar.
So United introducing illy cold brew on all flights is quite noteworthy, especially as the airline will serve the non-sugary version. My only concern is that I wouldn’t be surprised if only a very limited number of cans will be loaded per flight, and it’ll be like a lottery to actually get it.
Why cold brew on airplanes is awesome
Coffee is something I’m passionate about, especially in the context of travel. For many of us, coffee powers us through jetlag and early mornings and late nights. In my opinion it’s such an easy area where airlines and hotels can differentiate themselves with minimal effort.
Admittedly this just reflects my preferences, but I’ll always remember an airline or hotel that has especially good and readily available coffee.
Personally I can’t make sense of how long it has taken for major US carriers to start serving cold brew coffee:
- Americans love cold brew, so if you’re going to listen to customer feedback, that’s one easy area in which to do so
- Airplane coffee usually isn’t great, given the water tanks that are used; cold brew is a great alternative, since you can enjoy a caffeinated drink without having to consume water from the plane’s tanks
- Personally I prefer not to drink alcohol when traveling domestically, but I feel like major airlines really have quite limited decent non-alcoholic drink selections; sometimes I get bored of drinking just water or Diet Coke, and no US airline has decent juice, so cold brew is an awesome alternative
Anyway, I’ve been writing about how I wish airlines would introduce cold brew as far back as 2017 (and probably earlier than that), so I’m happy to see this finally becoming increasingly common.
Bottom line
United Airlines will introduce illy cold brew onboard flights as of July 2024. It’ll be available on most flights of over 300 miles, complimentary in premium cabins, and available for purchase in economy. It’s nice to see the concept of cold brew onboard flights catching on with more airlines. United will be the first global US carrier to have cold brew on virtually all flights.
Anyone excited to see cold brew coming to United Airlines?
Happy to hear that!
Wish it was free in economy too - safer than hot coffee both for spills and bacteria.
Hopefully other airlines will copy
How much does it cost?
bring back Diet Sprite!
I have been waiting for this moment! As a cold brew drinker I have been waiting for an airline to provide this. So this is a BIG win!
I guess the issue is retorted canned cold brew tastes exactly like any other retorted or UHT treated coffee and that is: not good. I guess it's the only sanitary way to bring cold brew to an airplane, but I'd rather have a freshly (hot) brewed coffee or espresso over ice than any tinned coffee, no matter how it was extracted in the first place (cold, hot or redissolved instant). The heat treatment and the...
I guess the issue is retorted canned cold brew tastes exactly like any other retorted or UHT treated coffee and that is: not good. I guess it's the only sanitary way to bring cold brew to an airplane, but I'd rather have a freshly (hot) brewed coffee or espresso over ice than any tinned coffee, no matter how it was extracted in the first place (cold, hot or redissolved instant). The heat treatment and the addition of the buffer salt to counter natural acidification really does level everything down to a sort of coffee-based fishy soy sauce. So why use cold brew that's much more expensive to make than any other RTD black coffee is a bit beyond me. It will make it more likely to go soon as costs are cut.
Now it's a no calorie cold beverage option that's not showered with aromas and sweeteners so I guess it is something in the great scheme of things. Still it's a single use packaging to transport a lot of water.
I wish one of the coffee machine makers would develop a versatile plane-ready machine that could do all sorts of coffees. From brewing a couple of batches automatically for cattle class during climb, to custom made to order coffee drinks for premium cabins. THAT would be an exciting coffee development.
"talk about an exciting and long overdue development!"
Really? I think this is in line for the most boring and irrelevant post of all airline b/vlogs this month.
And how anybody who is "passionate" about coffee could possibly like a tinned something which is stirred together from water, 4,3% coffee extract and potassium hydrogen carbonate is a complete mystery for me.
lmao chill i promise everything is going to be ok
@ CapitalMike -- Okay, let me take your comment at face value. First of all, I didn't say that this is something you have to be excited about, but rather that it's something I'm excited about. I'm certainly not alone in my enthusiasm, though I understand if this is totally irrelevant to you.
Regarding how anyone could "possibly" like cold brew, I think you're missing the point. I'm not suggesting that illy cold brew is...
@ CapitalMike -- Okay, let me take your comment at face value. First of all, I didn't say that this is something you have to be excited about, but rather that it's something I'm excited about. I'm certainly not alone in my enthusiasm, though I understand if this is totally irrelevant to you.
Regarding how anyone could "possibly" like cold brew, I think you're missing the point. I'm not suggesting that illy cold brew is the world's best coffee drink, but rather that it's better than the alternatives. It's not like an airplane cabin is your favorite local coffee roaster, and you can have whatever you want.
I never really understood the "plane tank water is gross" argument. How many people check the cleanliness of their own water pipes at home? And how many people check the facilities bottled water is produced in?
And to add, it’s heated to near boiling in order to brew coffee or tea. I’m not sure how much bacteria actually survives that. I’m not a scientist but I’m comfortable drinking plane coffee.