Alaska Airlines has expanded its partnership with Portland-based roaster Stumptown Coffee, debuting an exclusive cold brew on select flights as part of a wider summer beverage refresh announced on 16 June 2026 from Seattle.
According to Alaska Airlines News, the new “Stumptown Copilot Cold Brew” is being introduced on domestic flights longer than 350 miles and on services to and from Reykjavík, Iceland. The carrier stated that the drink is complimentary in First Class and Premium Class and available for purchase in the Main Cabin.
The cold brew is positioned as a carrier-exclusive product in the United States travel market. In its announcement, Alaska Airlines said the beverage is “exclusive to Alaska Airlines and cannot be purchased in stores,” framing the launch alongside new international business class wines, Tide & Vine wines, premium cocktails, and a refreshed tea program shared with Hawaiian Airlines.
This latest move builds on a relationship that began in October 2023, when Alaska and Stumptown introduced a custom hot coffee blend for onboard service. As reported by Alaska Airlines News, that blend was developed specifically to taste good at cruising altitude, with more than 20 variables tested and multiple flight tests and blind customer surveys conducted before finalizing the profile.
The expansion into cold brew also reflects the scale of Stumptown’s ready-to-drink business. World Coffee Portal reports that Stumptown purchases over a million pounds of green coffee annually for cold brew production and can produce up to 28,000 nitro cans per day.
Cold brew itself is not new to Stumptown. The company notes on its own history page that it first launched a cold brew product in 2011, describing the original bottled format as the “cold brew stubby.” In a statement on the airline partnership carried by Global Coffee Report, Stumptown’s Senior Manager of Product and Innovation Kelly McCann said, “In 2011, our first cold brew stubby took Stumptown beyond the café. Now, with Copilot Cold Brew and our partners at Alaska, we’re taking Stumptown to new heights.”
The airline collaboration has also reshaped Alaska’s broader coffee offering. Aviation outlet Avio Space reports that Alaska ended its decade-long arrangement with Starbucks and replaced Starbucks coffee in its lounges at New York John F. Kennedy and Portland International Airport with Stumptown, aligning its ground and inflight service around the same specialty partner.
The timing of the cold brew rollout has been described slightly differently by sources. Alaska Airlines News states that Stumptown Copilot Cold Brew debuted onboard in June 2026 as part of the summer program, while travel blog Live and Let’s Fly reports that select domestic flights will begin serving the cold brew on 1 July 2026.
Avio Space notes that Alaska is using West Coast brands such as Stumptown and Straightaway Cocktails to emphasize a regional identity in its onboard offering, a strategy that the airline has now extended from a tailored hot coffee blend to an exclusive cold brew positioned for the cabin environment.
