The one drink you should never order on a plane
Hands up if this has ever happened to you after take-off.
You’re near the back of the plane and the bar cart is inching towards you, your mouth is dry and you can’t wait for a cool drink.
And it’s taking forever. Why?
It’s not the beer, wine and apple juice drinkers slowing down the service — it’s those ordering Diet Coke.
In a recent post on the flyboy blog These Gold Wings, an anonymous flight attendant calls out the low-calorie soft drink as a hindrance to bar service.
“Pouring Diet Coke is one of the biggest slow downs in the bar service, and on the shorter flights those precious seconds count,” wrote the flight attendant under the pseudonym Jet.
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Diet Coke drinkers are well aware of the time it takes to de-fizz their soft drink after pouring it into a cup – but it’s even worse in the air.
Jet explains why this common occurrence is even more applicable from 8,000 feet in the sky.
“As you may know, the aircraft cabin is not pressurized to sea level, but rather to the equivalent of about seven or eight thousand feet … soft drinks foam up a lot more when poured out of a can,” wrote Jet.
“I literally have to sit and wait for the bubbles to fall before I can continue pouring.
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“If all three passengers ask for Diet Coke I’ll often get them started, take another three drink orders, serve those, and then finish the Diet Cokes.”
While this information wasn’t shared to deter travellers from enjoying the popular drink in the air, Jet was trying to explain why bar service can take longer than expected.
“I don’t care what you want to drink. I’ll pour it, and I won’t have a second thought about it.”
Looking for an alternative to your usual soft drink?
Try tomato juice. According to science, a combination of cabin pressure and the drink’s acidity make it the perfect drink to enjoy in flight.
If you’re lucky they might have the trimmings to turn it into a bloody Mary.
