The Onboard Coffee Tastes Awful, But the Cup Is Delicious: Air New Zealand’s New Edible Coffee Cup

by Gary Leff

As part of Air New Zealand’s commitment to reduce single use items they are trialing a new coffee cup.

When you finish drinking your coffee – and you really do need to drink it down to the last drop – you can eat the cup, because it’s made out of biscotti.

The promise that the form is functional and will stay crispy throughout the drinking experience. In fact the cups are tested with boiling water and the manufacturer, Twiice, claims “you can have water in there for 24 hours and it won’t break or split.”

This isn’t for everyone. It isn’t vegan (contains eggs) and it isn’t gluten free, though Twiice plans to introduce these options in the next year. Air New Zealand is continuing to cater compostable coffee cups on board.

It concerns me a little bit that all of the discussion about the cup is that it’s biscotti, and nothing about whether it’s any good. Sadly I don’t expect to be able to find out either – we can’t just hop any Air New Zealand flight you want and try the cup because the airline admits it’s only for select customers.

So if you want to try the coffee cup your best bet is to visit one of the five cafes in Auckland that carriers it (Fantail & Turtle, Sherry Kitchen, Freaky, Yeahbowl, Bow and Tie), or one of the two in Tauranga (Henry & Ted, Elizabeth Cafe & Larder).

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  1. How are these cups packaged?

    I really can’t imagine that these are actually better for the environment than compost-able cups. It really just transitions the trash from the compost heap to the toilets and airport waste management systems.
    Probably cheaper for the airline, but I’m not sure that it’s actually any better for the environment unless we’re saying that composting isn’t as eco-friendly as sewage?

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