Burgers and beer made for 40,000 feet

Say what you will about fine dining in first class – lobster, caviar and carefully-plated gourmet delicacies – but many frequent flyers crave simpler satisfactions like a hamburger and a cold beer.

But translating these street-level staples into premium inflight options is far more complex than simply reheating a patty or opening a standard can of lager.

High altitude fundamentally alters the physics of taste, forcing premium airlines to turn to culinary science in delivering great comfort food above the clouds.

How altitude impacts your sense of taste

The moment an aircraft cabin passes cruising altitude, the environment shifts dramatically.

Humidity drops to single digits – drier than the Sahara Desert – while low atmospheric pressure and the constant, low-frequency hum of jet engines combine to dull our sensory perception.

Research shows that a passenger's ability to discern salt and sweetness drops by roughly 30% in flight.

Conversely, our sensitivity to sour, bitter, and spicy notes remains relatively stable, meaning that earthier profiles can easily become unpleasantly overpowering, while subtle nuances fade into bland obscurity.

Airlines can’t rely on ground-level recipes to combat this palate fatigue. Instead, every element must be re-engineered to deliver full, robust flavours through a compromised sensory lens.

British Airways: elevating the humble hamburger

Recognising the shift towards premium comfort food, British Airways designed an exclusive, gourmet hamburger tailored specifically for first class flyers.

Rather than relying on a standard beef blend that would dry out during the mandatory onboard reheating process, BA's chefs spent months developing a unique  patty using a blend of three distinct cuts of British beef: chuck, cheek, and onglet.

The British Airways hamburger patty combines three different cuts of beef.

“As taste buds are affected at altitude, we have created an original patty, which has proven extremely popular in taste-tests,” explains British Airways chef Mark Tazzioli.

This specific combination of meats ensures the burger retains its essential succulence, fat content, and moisture in the dry cabin air.

Tazzioli said it took “months of trials to ensure we get the perfect texture and succulence, not just for the British palate, but for the hundreds of other nationalities that fly with us.

To cut through the high-altitude flavour barrier, the airline pairs the rich patty with melted Monterey Jack cheese, gherkins, and a highly aromatic smoky tomato relish spiked with raisins and paprika to maximise umami.

The entire ensemble is nestled within a sweet brioche bun, which provides a necessary punch of sweetness that would otherwise be lost at 35,000 feet.

Cathay Pacific’s bespoke sky beer

It’s not just food that takes a hit when you’re flying high: beers also suffer.

Standard lagers and heavily hoppy IPAs can often taste excessively bitter, harsh, or flat in a pressurised cabin.

Cathay Pacific first solved this dilemma in 2017 with the launch of Betsy Beer: a signature inflight craft ale, named after the airline's very first aircraft - a 1940s Douglas DC-3 called Betsy.

Cathay Pacific's Betsy Beer is named for the airline's first plane, this DC-3.

However, seeking to refine the flavour profile for broader appeal and expand the offering to passengers across all long-haul cabins, the airline completely revised the brew in 2019 through a new partnership with celebrated Hong Kong craft brewery, Gweilo Beer.

The current iteration of Betsy is a highly aromatic, citrus-forward Pale Ale explicitly designed to combat altitude palate fatigue.

To build a robust foundation that survives the sensory limitations of the cabin, Gweilo brewers rely on a predominantly unroasted malted barley base, intertwined with just enough slightly roasted barley.

Betsy Beer is the first craft ale scientifically engineered for high-altitude consumption.

This specific adjustment imparts a sweet, comforting malty backbone – rich with notes of bread, biscuit, and toffee – that successfully punches through the dry cabin air without becoming cloying. 

To inject vibrant aromatics where the low-humidity environment naturally strips them away, locally sourced mandarin orange peel is added during the boil.

The brew is then fermented using Gweilo’s proprietary house ale yeast and generously dry-hopped with a bespoke blend of citrus and orange-forward hops, ensuring a bright, refreshing finish.

Betsy Beer is available to passengers in all Cathay cabins, and also in selected lounges.

Crucially, the beer is packaged with a higher carbonation levels, ensuring that even under lower cabin pressures, the pale ale maintains its effervescence, mouthfeel, and a creamy head.

“Whether you're a newcomer to craft beer or a passionate enthusiast, Betsy Beer has something for everyone,” notes Vivian Lo, Cathay Pacific’s General Manager Customer Experience and Design.

“Its character is both distinctly Cathay Pacific and distinctly Hong Kong, and it's the perfect accompaniment to the diverse options served as part of our inflight culinary experience.”

Also read: How Cathay Pacific upgraded its inflight coffee