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Comment by ryanSrich | Hacker News Reader

Every flight I've been on with Starbucks VIA has been absolute trash. Airplane coffee quite literally tastes like it was made with toilet water. That's honestly the only way I can describe it. I'm bearish on any improvements because I'm convinced the problem is the water they use.

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The decrease in air pressure and humidity also have big effects on your sensation of food(smell and taste)

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150112-why-in-flight-food-...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9408563

Apparently the companies making coffee for planes have (de)pressure chambers to conduct tastings.

If that is true, they they are running incredible margins to afford that. A human sized negative pressure chamber is not any easy thing to obtain or maintain, even to airplane climates specs. Most likely, they rent out time on someone else's chamber or just take a chartered flight and test on the plane.

Not true, I took an Aeropress on an international flight and made fresh coffee throughout the flight. It tasted great. The hot stewardesses had no problem letting me use their hot water which was nice.

You're actually arguing that the environment of a plane doesn't have any effect on people's sense of taste because one time you totally liked your cup of coffee on a plane?

You're spot on re: the water quality. An investigation at DFW a few years ago found hazardous levels of e.coli in the potable water tanks used to refill aircraft.

I wonder why the airlines aren't doing anything about this. I'm not a frequent first-class passenger, but if I were, high-quality coffee would be a big deal for me.

Plane water is really nasty. Even Sudden made it will not taste great. You can mix Sudden with cold water by shaking it in a bottle and that's what I usually do when traveling

> I'm not a frequent first-class passenger, but if I were, high-quality coffee would be a big deal for me.

Many transatlantic and transpacific flights now have a proper grind-on-demand coffee machine (allowing for lattes, cappuccinos, etc) in business / first class. Doesn't necessarily solve the water problem, although they can fill them up from bottled (I don't know if they actually do).

Definitely looking to do plane coffee at some point but the water quality remains biggest issue.

I don't think I've ever been on an airplane that served "tap water". It's always been bottled.

drinking water is but hot water for brewing coffee comes from big tanks that get really gross

I make Starbucks VIA instant coffee at home and it's quite good. If I make it at work it's horrible so I'd say water quality is a big factor. At both home and work I used tap water both from the same city source.

For the airplane I wonder if the water isn't getting hot enough due to lower atmospheric pressure. The flight attendant see it boiling so they assume boiling means hot but it may only be 80C not 100C.

I know when I make the Starbucks VIA I make sure the water is boiling well (I live at sea level) and it's really hot otherwise it doesn't work out.

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