I bring very good news: Alaska Airlines is dumping Starbucks for Stumptown Coffee, both in the air and on the ground. This is wonderful news, not just because I dislike Starbucks, but because I love Stumptown Coffee.
Starbucks Is Out, Stumptown Is In On Alaska Airlines
I love coffee. Come over to my house and I will make you a lovely flat white or espressoo or latte. While I use many beans, one of my favorite coffee beans is Hair Blender Espresso from Stumptown. It was therefore quite delightful to receive an email from Alaska Airlines this morning that the carrier is introducing Stumptown coffee in the air and on the ground, including my beloved Hair Blender blend.
Stumptown Coffee, based in Portland, Oregon, led the third wave of coffee, a movement that emphasizes the quality of coffee in terms of source, taste, and presentation. Now that coffee is coming to Alaska flights and lounges.
Alaska Airlines began with Stumptown’s Holler Mountain blend (another blend I quite enjoy), which is described as “smooth and balanced, with aromatic notes of toasted marshmallows, browned butter and toffee with delicate hints of citrus and cherry.”
It then asked Stumptown to tinker with the blend to create a coffee more suitable for taste buds at 40,000 feet, where many things taste differently than on the ground. To find the ideal blend, 200 pots of coffee were brewed and over 20 variables were tested, including changes in grind, dose, filter paper, and filter-pack. Stumptown even tested its special blend with Alaska’s inflight milk and Biscoff cookie to ensure they paired (Alaska Airlines now offers oat milk onboard).
Alaska Airlines will also add Stumptown’s Holler Mountain brewed coffee, Hair Bender at barista-stations, and Trapper Creek decaf coffee to its Portland (PDX) and New York (JFK) lounges. Live And Let’s Fly has asked Alaska Airlines if the coffee will eventually come to all Alaska Lounges.
What Happened To Starbucks?
There is no mention in any communication from Alaska Airlines about what happened to Seattle-based Starbucks coffee, but we won’t see both Stumptown and Starbucks onboard.
I expect we will continue to see Starbucks in Alaska Lounges for the time being, particularly via automatic machines.
If you want Starbucks, you will have to fly Delta Air Lines…
CONCLUSION
I will fly Alaska Airlines just for this (not regularly at least for now, but just to try out the new coffee). I am excited to see that Alaska Airlines is bringing Stumptown onboard and laud the airline for so consciously trying to create a good coffee experience for guests both on the ground and in the air. This is very good news.
I say , there is no coffee like genuine Kona coffee .
Interestingly, I am not a huge fan of Kona coffee.
That’s understandable and OK . More for me , (he-he) .
There is a reason Starbucks only entered in Italy in 2018 and still only have 20 stores there. If you really understand anything about quality coffee you will not go to Starbucks.
@Santastico … Exactly so . I don’t understand how even one can survive .
Convenience, hype and ignorance. You have to agree that they are convenient. If you don’t have an option or are not familiar with a place, a Starbucks is something you can at least know what you will get. There is a hype about it and again kudos to them. I have been to many Starbucks to meet people and you can see there are customers that go there everyday and are well known by the local store team. They are proud to spend their money there. Ignorance is about quality. Italy does not produce a pound of coffee but has mastered roasting, grinding and extraction of coffee. Look at any coffee shop and 99% of them have Italian coffee machines. Thus, Starbucks is not something they will adopt. If you go to a Starbuck sin Italy, it is full of Asian tourists taking selfies and posting on Instagram. What do they know about coffee?
Starbucks has Italian coffee machines too, but it’s about the coffee and this sad pathetic mass-appeal coffee that people drink up like Bud Light.
That’s what I said, Italians have mastered almost everything about coffee and that’s why they don’t drink Starbucks. They use the Italian machines but not the coffee that comes from Italy. Ans yes, drinking coffee like Bud Light is not coffee. I use a Nespresso type of machine at home for quick espresso and only buy my capsules from an Italian coffee place in Naples, Italy. Fantastic!!
“ I love coffee. Come over to my house and I will make you a lovely flat white or espressoo or latte.”
2 statements that can’t be further apart. COFFEE is a cup of black American coffee. Those other things are not coffee. It’s like saying a Chicken McNugget is chicken, only true in some obscene definition of the word.
And yes, it’s nice to have a debate much less relevant than current world events.
Negative sir – Coffee can come from anywhere and I have had great BLACK coffee from abroad, such as Rwanda. Also it remains coffee even if you put stuff in it. I personally enjoy adding those ready to drink Quest or Premier Protein drinks to mine – you can get a variety of flavors like Caramel, Chocolate, Vanilla, plus protein and very little fat. I drink it every day.
This will likely be an upgrade, but airplane coffee still suffers from the fact that it is made with the terrible tap water that fills the plane’s potable water tanks. Until airlines start using filtered water to make their coffee, it will forever be limited in quality.
This is quite right and I would love to see Alaska say that it is installing water filters in its galley to make the water better.
Came here to say what Doug said. Coffee is >90% water — no matter how good the beans our, if the water is bad the coffee will suffer.
On your recommendation Klint, I will have to try Stumptown (Which I have never heard of) – It has to be better than Starbucks and their burnt swill.
Here in LA, it’s available in most grocery stores. The “Hair Blender” espresso is superb.
Matthew, thanks for another interesting article.
I too am not a fan of Starbucks.
Apparently Stumptown was acquired by Peet’s Coffee in 2015, which is owned by JDE Peet’s. Wondering if eventually that may lead to lowering the quality of Stumptown Products.
Safe Journeys!
The ultimate parent of Stumptown, JAB Holding, also owns Intelligentsia, another third-wave coffee roaster. JAB gives the brands a lot of leash as far as maintaining quality and the brand’s reputation. Converselt, when Nestle bought Blue Bottle coffee you could immediately tell that the supply chains and processes has shifted away from a true third-wave roaster.
I guess since I grew up on 7-11 coffee, it will always be my favorite…LOL!
Thank God! Starbucks coffee sucks!
I usually wait until I get to my destination to drink coffee otherwise its urgent ‘Lavatory’ time on an airplane!
“ I love coffee. Come over to my house and I will make you a lovely flat white or espresso or latte.”
Thanks Matthew, if I ever find myself in LA again I’ll let you know.
That was an invitation, wasn’t it? 🙂