Air New Zealand Tries To Combat Waste With Its Edible Coffee Cups

An edible coffee cup that doubles as a dessert bowl. Sounds straight out of a fairy tale right Like the gingerbread house in Hansel & Gretel Well, these dreams aren&rsquot far from reality anymore. And if you&rsquore travelling with Air New Zealand, it&rsquos as real as it gets. In a bid to reduce plastic waste the airline is rolling out edible vanilla-flavoured coffee cups on a trial basis. 

The biscotti cups are being sourced from Twiice, a family-run business, for select customers. Once the guests finish their coffee, they can eat the vanilla cup like a biscuit. So far these cups have been tried out at the lounges in Auckland as well as in some select trans - Tasman flights. 

Made out of wheat flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla essence and natural vanilla flavour, these cups have been designed to be leakproof and stay crisp at least as long as it takes to drink the coffee and longer. According to the Twiice website, there aren&rsquot any gluten-free or dairy-free variations till now and the cups also contain traces of peanuts, sesame seeds, tree nuts, soy and the like. Currently, Air New Zealand serves more than 8 million cups of coffee annually. With this new alternative practice, the airline will be able to drastically reduce the use of plastic on board. 

As per the airlines, this plant-based cup will be available on all flights during the trial period.