As someone who drinks a lot of coffee, I’ve long said that I wish more airlines would serve iced coffee or cold brew. Well, Southwest is the latest airline to introduce this…
Continue reading: Southwest Airlines Adds Iced Coffee, With A Catch
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I love cold brew/iced coffee, but I'd rather tempt fate with the aircraft water tank produced warm swill than drink this garbage.
They should do a collab with 7/11. Inflight slurpees are next. Actually really fitting for southwest.
Much bigger fan of the Delta cold brew served from Explorer: https://news.delta.com/update-small-diverse-brands-lead-deltas-food-and-beverage-refresh
20 grams of sugar. Damn. No wonder the American diet is so bad. Agreed tho that canned iced coffees are a much more hygienic alternative to hot water tanks.
How is you not liking the product "a catch"? A catch would be if the iced coffee was only available on select flights or to A-list flyers, the cost was absurd, or they were only going to stock 10 per flight--something that made is so that Southwest could say they've "added iced coffee" but as a practical matter most people wouldn't be able to get it, even if they wanted it.
@ tda1986 -- The catch is that this isn't what most people would traditionally think of as an iced coffee, but rather it's a sweet and sugary drink. If you go somewhere and order an iced coffee, you don't expect that it'll have 150 calories and 20 grams of sugar. That's why I said there's a catch.
I agree that this is just frustrating - almost everyone adds dairy, new age 'milk', and/or sugar/sweetener to their specific liking. They should just have unsweetened cold brew with a sugar/milk sachel or requested from the FA, as you stated.
I like iced coffee at times but agree that I will hard pass on having to pay for it plus the amount of sugar.
A cup of coffee and ice - using airplane water - is a better alternative.
And you would think that the concentrate alternative would make more sense since it is lighter and takes up less storage space
Still waiting for airlines to serve Unsweetened Iced Tea as an option. How hard can that be to offer a bottle of Tejava on the menu.
It’s junk food just like their livery looks like junk food. Well done Southwest.
Lucky, have you been assiduously inspecting every single water container on every single plane you fly to make the sweeping judgement that they're all gross?? Seems to me that if we'd be having thousands of cases airborne-contracted E.coli or any other waterborne microbes and pathogens. And that most definitely is NOT THE CASE. I understand you like your (canned) coffee and taking care of one's health is a good thing. But ease up on the hyperbole would ya? I've been flying since 1976 and I (along with hundreds of millions of pax) have NO problem with freshly inflight brewed tea or coffee.
Just what the airlines need...more people bouncing off the walls! The sugar effect!
That's not how you make Iced Tea or Cold Brew coffees, except maybe at Denny's....:)
I guess… but they say exactly what product they’re serving in the title and first line of the press release. It’s not like they suggest they’re going to offer something they’re not.
@Lucky
"The catch is that this isn't what most people would traditionally think of as an iced coffee"
Maybe I'm not most people but iced coffee, like iced tea, is expected to be a mixed drink. Same as I would expect iced tea to be sweet unless I order it unsweetened.
Airplane tanks are pretty bad. Remember the days when flight attendants served water from a metal pitcher straight out of the tanks? Fortunately the water used for making coffee is very very hot!!
I tried this at the KCI airport previous. It was good, but I probably won't pay $4 for it on a flight.
@ Eskimo -- I hear you, though I don't think that reflects the default expectation of most US consumers. If you go to virtually any major coffee retailer and order an iced coffee, it will come unsweetened and with nothing in it by default, and then you can add milk or sweetener. For the iced coffee available at supermarkets, it seems to be mixed, with some coming with sweetener, and others just coming plain.
@ tda1986 -- And I don't think I suggested they were trying to deceive anyone? I'm not just rewriting press releases. My point was that the airline is introducing iced coffee, but it's probably not the iced coffee most consumers want.
Still using their ice. Way to much sugar. 20grams. Women should only have 25 grams in a day!
I'm an avid coffee drinker usually iced but hot when I want it. The addition of Community Exspresso + Cream does nothing for a many travelers. This product alone has 23 grams of carbs in it alone and as a type 1 diabetic if im paying $4.00 for iced coffee I am going to make sure it's my way and not play havoc on my health. So yes it is good for most that they offer this but like a lot of things they have taken no consideration for travelers as a whole that have health concerns or even allergies around sugars or milk that a simple iced black coffee that people could added what they like to, would do.
While I appreciate that Southwest Airlines, which is usually my airline of choice, has chosen to offer the product of a family business to offer on their flights, I would have to pass.
For specific health reasons, I have to monitor my sugar intake, the drink would be an untouchable.
I'm guessing this choice is based in part in response to general public's love of sugary drinks.
It's difficult, sometimes impossible to find any drink without sweetners of some sort (except water) available in convenience stores, etc.
As Southwest must be a substantial buyer from the vendor, if the vendor doesn't already have a similar, but nonsweetened product available, I suggest they introduce one.
I can't WAIT to read yet another person pipe up and proclaim:
(a) how much sugar there is in this coffee, and
(b)) how they won't drink it.
Such original commentators we've stirred today (no pun intended).
I am glad to see iced coffee added to our choices I will be looking forward to this.
I would also like to add that I wish you would bring back your just plane cookies. Those were so good & I miss them
Most people think their mixed drinks at Starbucks are coffee drinks when the amount of coffee compared to cream, syrup, etc is not much. Pure coffee or coffee with milk is not bad for you. I think as fat and calorie counts are on menus in many places now people are starting to consider this more. I agree the Delta option lets you add how you would like to drink it and is free!
Yes and I would say some of the most premium airlines would make sure theirs is not gross especially in the front sections of the plane!
Don't drink it if you are worried about calories. 150 calories won't make you fat! Life is short so find something meaningful to write about or complain about.
I say you can't please everyone...we all have choices...if you don't like the menu...don't order! I prefer to keep cheap airfare prices...could care less about what's on the menu...Btw...I approved this message!!
It really isn't "iced coffee". It's a coffee flavored, oversweetened, overpriced drink.
Eh, some folks are into the sweet stuff. That's why those insane Starbucks bottled frappucinos do so well. I'd like to see both options, or just a regular iced coffee with milk and sugar on the side.
I ordered one on my flight a couple weeks ago thinking it was another free coffee. The stewardess didn't explain what it was. It was so unbelievably sweet I couldn't even finish the whole thing. I don't know why manufacturers make these beverages so damn sweet. It's become the "norm". If they used half the amount of sugar then that would be on the "new norm". Luckily the stewardess didn't charge me for it. Will not order again, unless I have some whiskey or rum to mix it with.
Logistically offering something that’s already sweet may help reduce additional requests for sugar or cream with coffee. I have to believe SW has data to back this decision. Most passengers may prefer the sweetened option.
I ordered the Community iced coffee on my last Southwest flight for $4. Yes, it has a bit of sugar. I don't drink my coffee with sugar but thought that this drink was DELICIOUS!! I have a trip coming up, and I'm looking forward to the flight just so I can order one of these! I'm so glad that Southwest has added this to their choices. We all eat some sugar sometimes, and this will be my time!