The discount airline is hoping to woo coffee-loving and ecologically minded fliers with a new coffee that hopes to rise above the competition.

When it comes to sipping coffee at 37,000 feet, most of us just hope we’re not handed a packet of instant and some hot water. Airline coffee has much the same reputation that airline food does – consume only when absolutely desperate – and landside cafes have made a bundle off of convincing flyers to take their coffee onboard with them.

Southwest is hoping to change that perspective. The discount airline is planning to unveil LIFT, a new coffee served only onboard Southwest flights, starting May 4th.

We don’t yet know a whole lot about LIFT’s taste, other than that Southwest is promising that it won’t be as un-appetizing as the usual airline coffee offerings. The airline published a blog entry by Lindsey Reynolds yesterday introducing the coffee as something new to look for in the skies.

So how does an airline go about swapping out ick-factor coffee for something fliers actually want to drink? Reynolds says Southwest selected a 15-member team from their corporate staff who visited a coffee plant and blind taste-tested 25 different blends to find the right one.

Southwest also polled their customers to help with the process. Seventy five percent said they drink coffee and 64 percent of that group said they disliked powdered coffee creamer. Based on those results, the airline will also begin offering liquid creamer. No joke, that little tidbit would push me over the fence if I were having a hard time deciding between Southwest and another flight.

You are now free to drink green

The cup that Southwest plans to serve LIFT in will also be different come May 4th. Reynolds says it’s made from 12 percent post-consumer product while its sleeve is made from 99 percent recycled materials. The blue cup features the word LIFT in bright orange, in all caps.

Southwest graphic designer Sonia Avila described the new design as, well…uplifting.

“Well, the word LIFT is very airy. I wanted to complement the clean design SWA is known for. Using my background in color theory, I knew I wanted to use a warm color for anything food-related,” she said. “So I started working with a deep orange from our vintage color palette. Combined with the blue, it’s a striking palette with an upbeat personality–just like Southwest.”

Given the vast choice we have these days among airlines, it’s not surprising that they’re giving customers a reason to fly with them right down to the coffee served onboard. Jet Blue, for example, serves Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, but my research to find other airlines taking similar steps fell flat. I did however learn that water boils at lower temperatures in higher altitudes. So perhaps it hasn’t been the airlines’ bad taste in coffee, but more the water they use all this time?

Either way, Reynolds wasn’t giving up what exactly LIFT tastes like.

“I myself have not had the coffee yet, but as a french press addict/former Portlandian, I take my java very seriously,” she writes. “In fact, I might just have to book myself a flight on May 4th to try it out—perhaps to Southwest’s Northwest destination cities (Portland and Seattle of course) for a cross-country coffee tour of the skies.”

Sounds like fun to me!

No Comments »