Budget carrier Eurowings, a member of the Luthansa Group, has an innovative new appraoch to onboard coffee: an industrial-grade espresso machine. Will Eurowings suddenly have the best onbaord coffee in Europe?
New Automated Coffee Cart Offers Espresso Drinks On Eurowings
Flight attendant Jay Robert curates one of my favorite social media channels called A Fly Guy Travels.
This week, he shared video of a clever new contrpation that has been rigged into a beverage cart on Eurowings, a discount carrier based in Dusseldorf that operates domestic and European routes from many German cities.
Open the cart, press down, and an automatic coffee machines emerges, with choices including:
- Cafe Creme
- Cappuccino
- Latte Machiato
- Espresso
- Double Espresso
- Cafe Latte
- Chococino
- Espresso Machiato
- Hot Chocolate
- Hot Water
Simply press the button the drink you desire and, voila, your hot beverage is dispensed.
View this post on Instagram
There’s no indication on pricing, but Roberts says, “The fully autonomous cart comes equipped with its own battery, water, and milk supply, allowing cabin crew to serve fresh coffee on demand during the service in the cabin,” and adds:
“Currently in its trial phase, this could revolutionize in-flight coffee culture.”
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you konw my coffee snobbery knows no bounds…and I don’t say that proudly. The problem with any automatic machine that I have ever used is that if making a cappucino or latte, it dispenses the milk first, then the espresso and that results in very drink than adding velvety milk into espresso, so as to blend it.
Yes, yes…we’re talking about an airplane and I suspect many will love this innovation…I’d even be willing to give it a try.
But I’d rather drink black coffee oboard and wait for a proper espresso drink on the ground.
As for the best onboard coffee, I do note that Italian carrier Air Dolomoti, also a member of the Lufthasna Group, offers illy espresso onboard, which is also not my favorite, but likely far better than this. Air Dolomiti also serves the espresso in ceramic cups.
But don’t let me rain on this good news. I am very happy to see this innvoation and if there is fufcient demand and it does not become a matinatence nightmare, I could very well see this expand across more carriers.
Would you order coffee like this on Eurowings?
> Read More: Air Dolomiti Adds Espresso Machines Onboard
image: @aflyguytravels/Instagram
No swearwords are strong enough to describe my feelings on the LHG’s decision to introduce this while the eponymous airline doesn’t even serve bog standard espresso in European business class.
What is “bog” standard espresso ? Extra thick ?
Builder’s own grade, probably adding a random amount of cold milk just to spoil the drink.
Most amerimutts don’t appreciate good coffee and only like their high fructose corn syrup infused soft drinks.
Lufthansa Group: Innovating coffee. Neglecting WiFi
Does Eurowings still have no wi-fi?
Aegean and Austrian have both served a range of coffee options for years.
The good news is offer great coffee.
The bad news is we basically are the old Germanwings and hired Andreas Lubitz, but again we offer great coffee.
A renowned travel blogger in the top ten most read US sites predicates machine coffee isn’t close to barista made.
I love this idea and will try it as soon as I fly in their area. Air Dolomiti is a nifty airline, all short flights, but this is a great addition. Hopefully it pans out and will get carried onto Lufthansa long hauls. Agreed that many machine espressos are terrible, but there are also a few good ones. Still better than straight drip coffee. And hey, let’s give them credit for trying something new.