A coffee lover can never compromise with its taste. They can smell and tell whether the coffee is good or bad. Now, when it comes to travelling on a flight, they get stuck in a very problematic situation. They may, of course, try to avoid drinking coffee if it’s a short distance flight, but what if it’s not.
Then, they will ultimately drink coffee and then will get pissed off and will blame either the beans or the major coffee exporting companies. But, in an actual sense, these things are not the ones who deserve to be condemned, because the same companies supply coffee on land as well, but here the taste remains normal. And, these days Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks coffee is served on the plane, but still, the feeling remains weird.
Reasons behind the different taste of coffee in an aeroplane from regular coffee are:-
If not beans then who?
The answer is water.
- Water: – One study has proved that water tanks in flights aid the microbial growth.
Water test conducted in 2012 in commercial airlines revealed that 12% of them tested positive for coli form, which proves that there are chances of the presence of other bacteria as well.
- Boiling: – Coffee beans release their essence only when water boils at a good temperature, but at high altitude, water boils at low temperature, and thus half of the story ends here.
- Hygiene: – In aeroplanes, drinking and hand washing water comes from the same tank, and these tanks are rarely cleaned maybe once in a six-month period. So there is no scope for coffee to taste good, with such brilliant hygiene management strategy. Flight attendants try to avoid drinking tea or coffee on flights. And the containers in which coffee is prepared are not cleaned properly before using. As the workers are not paid a good amount for their service, they don’t work actively and also don’t take their work seriously.
- Environmental and Biological factors: – Air at such high altitude becomes dry due to which 30% reduces sensitivity of our taste buds. The noise of an aeroplane can also affect the taste of sweetness and umami (found by food scientists, Cornell). So even if there is some chance for coffee to taste good, our taste buds don’t allow that to happen. They as barriers between coffee and our mood.
So, there is no scope for coffee to taste good in flight. If you can’t function without coffee, then all you can do is hope for the best. Or you can do one thing carry few chocolates which taste like coffee because something is better than nothing or drink coffee before boarding to avoid you craving for coffee while in flight.
If you can manage without coffee, then try to avoid drinking it in an aeroplane. Who would have thought that even the major Wholesale Coffee Suppliers cannot manage to provide you a delicious coffee in such big, luxurious flights? But yes, my friends it is, and that is just because of the different elements of an aeroplane.