Nice: Alaska Airlines Adds Stumptown Cold Brew To Drink Lineup

I’m absolutely delighted to see the latest addition to Alaska Airlines’ drink lineup, as this is an area where the airline really excels.

Alaska expands Stumptown partnership with cold brew

In 2023, we saw Alaska Airlines and Portland-based Stumptown Coffee launch a partnership for inflight coffee, which included a custom blend of filter coffee that’s served on all Alaska flights worldwide. That partnership is now being expanded, with the introduction of cold brew coffee.

Specifically, they are debuting the Stumptown Copilot Cold Brew, now offered exclusively on select domestic Alaska routes (though it’s not clear which routes), and on flights to and from Reykjavik (KEF). That seems like a rather random route selection, and I hope it’s expanded to all domestic and international flights over time.

The airline notes how the cold brew is “crafted in small batches using ethically sourced beans,” and how “the bright, full-bodied cold brew features a smooth, chocolatey finish and just two ingredients.” The cold brew will be complimentary for first class and extra legroom economy (Premium Class) passengers, and available for purchase in economy.

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.

Alaska is following United’s lead with introducing cold brew, as United rolled out illy cold brew systemwide back in 2024. That just happens to coincide with United’s improved financial performance… coincidence? 😉

I’m happy to see Alaska joining the club as well, though I hope it’s expanded to more than just “select” routes in the near future. Personally, I think this is something we should see across the board, and it’s only a matter of time until that happens:

• 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 good 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.

I should also mention that we’ve seen Delta and Southwest both try to serve cold brew or iced coffee in the past, but that didn’t last. However, I’d argue that didn’t prove successful for different reasons:

• Delta briefly served Explorer Cold Brew, which is great, but only on select transcontinental routes; I think the issue was that it wasn’t available on enough routes, so people didn’t really know about it
• Southwest briefly served Community Coffee’s Espresso + Cream Iced Coffee, but that was a sugary iced coffee drink, so it was targeting a different audience

Bottom line

Alaska Airlines will begin serving Stumptown Copilot Cold Brew on select flights. I think Alaska’s partnership with Stumptown is awesome in general, especially with the custom filter coffee blend, and it’s cool to see this expanded with cold brew.

The only thing is that I wish this were available on all routes, rather than just on select routes. This is an area where United still leads the way, with cold brew being available systemwide.

What do you make of Alaska Airlines adding cold brew to the drink lineup?