Objectively speaking, in-flight coffee is bad. This isn’t really news. Now, some more enlightened coffee drinkers (ie: me) have an appreciation—if not affinity—for airplane coffee. It signals the start, or the end, of an adventure, and like ginger ale and tomato juice, there’s something about flying that makes one crave that particular form of coffee, especially with a nice Biscoff cookie. Maybe it’s the altitude.
While companies like Stumptown Coffee and Alaska Airlines are making significant improvements to their in-flight coffee experience, for the most part, in-flight coffee is objectively bad. For the coffee-obsessed who haven’t learned to appreciate the depraved beauty of airplane coffee, this can lead to making one’s own brew mid-flight. Historically that meant making an AeroPress, which is frowned upon—for obvious reasons—but recent advances in instant coffee have made such a rigamaroll a thing of the past.
Or so one would have thought. But that message didn’t seem to make it to one Emirates Airlines passenger, who decided to bring a whole-ass pour-over setup to brew up coffee a mile high. Luckily, he was nice enough to share with his seatmates.
As reported by View From the Wing, the entire scene was captured by one Instagram user who happened to be sitting behind the onboard barista. And when I say this passenger had a whole-ass coffee setup, I need you to understand that I mean it. We’re talking v60, filters, serving vessel, scale, hand grinder (it appears to be a Comandante), coffee, and a kettle. A kettle. His setup was better than most people’s coffee counter at home.
Luckily, after putting on a brewing class for his cabinmates, this coffee-making fellow was nice enough to make some to share with those around him.
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Before you get any smart ideas, it should be noted that the Federal Aviation Administration has banned brewing devices mid-flight. This particular Emirates flight appears to be non-US and outside of the FAA’s jurisdiction, so perhaps that’s why this was allowed to proverbially fly.
While I’m normally endeared to such coffee nerdery, this is a no-go for me. If you bust out a full pour-over set to make coffee next to me, just be prepared to have big boy problems when turbulence occurs and you accidentally spill scalding hot water on me. The flight will have to make an emergency for one or both of us to be forcefully removed, is all I’m saying.
At this point, I’m again asking you to reconsider your feelings about airline coffee. Like, it’s not good, but also it kinda is. You wouldn’t go visit a kissaten in Japan and judge the experience solely on the flavor of the coffee, would you? For every time and place a coffee and a coffee for every time and place. And for bad coffee, the best place is in an airplane.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
