This week we’re going to take the quest for the best booze in the sky with the business class of the Middle East 3: Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar. All three are known for having super first class products—but their business class is pretty dang nice as well. Unsurprisingly, they live up to their reputation with some impressive drink offerings. Let’s see who has the best business class drinks – Emirates, Etihad, or Qatar!
Our scoring is still experimental, but it worked out pretty well when we did a European first class drink face-off, so we’ll stick with it. As a reminder, our drink face-off scoring is as follows:
- Champagne served, based on price and quality. First place gets 3 points, second gets 2 points, third place 1 point.
- Top spirit served, based on price and quality. First place gets 3 points, second gets 2 points, third place 1 point.
- Cocktail list. First place gets 3 points, second gets 2 points, third place 1 point. No cocktail list gets 0 points.
- Non-alcoholic drink selection, including local specialties or the like (such as milk tea). First place gets 3 points, second gets 2 points, third place 1 point.
- Coffee and tea selection. First place gets 3 points, second gets 2 points, third place 1 point.
- Other. If there are any unique offerings that don’t fall into a category (the blackberry liquor shots on LOT come to mind) or an offering is particularly weak in my judgement, I reserve the right to add or deduct points. This is a benevolent dictatorship, after all, but at least I’m transparent.
For this week’s face-off, we used the following reviews to source the menus:
- Simple Flying traveling from Nairobi to Abu Dhabi for Etihad
- Live and Let’s Fly traveling from Los Angeles to Dubai for Emirates
- One Mile at a Time traveling from Doha to Dallas for Qatar
Champagne – Best Business Class Drinks
| Airline | Top Champagne Served | Rank |
| Emirates | Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label ($50/bottle) | Tied – #1 |
| Etihad | Piper-Heidsieck Cuvee Brut ($50/bottle) | Tied – #1 |
| Qatar | Pommery Brut Royal ($46/bottle) | #2 |
As always, we begin with champagne, since the bubbles are such a wonderful enabler. The champagne competition was a bit of a challenge. Piper-Heidsieck retails for $50 (but is often available for less), and Pommery is at $46, so that’s basically a wash. However, the Piper cracked Wine Spectator’s top 100 (coming in at 95) – whereas I couldn’t find any praise for the Pommery. Yellow Label also comes in around ~$50 a bottle, and has quite a bit of acclaim. It’s a great drinking champagne with a lot of history. We’ll call this a tie between Emirates and Etihad.
- Emirates – 3
- Etihad – 3
- Qatar – 2
Spirits – Best Business Class Drinks
| Airline | Top Spirit Served | Rank |
| Emirates | Glenfiddich 15 Single Malt ($76/bottle) and Chivas Regal 18 Blended ($70) | #1 |
| Etihad | Chivas Regal 18 Blended ($70/bottle) | Tied – #2 |
| Qatar | Glenfiddich 15 Single Malt ($76/bottle) | Tied – #2 |
This was a tough category to rate, since all three airlines stock some pretty decent scotch. Making it more complex, they all had some combination of Glenfiddich 15, Chivas 18, or both. Blended vs. single malt is a preference thing, and the prices are in the same neighborhood. I gave Emirates the win here since they served both, and Etihad and Qatar only had one or the other. Score so far:
- Emirates – 6
- Etihad – 5
- Qatar – 4
Cocktails – Best Business Class Drinks
| Airline | Cocktail Selection | Rank |
| Emirates | Extensive cocktail list | Tied – #1 |
| Etihad | No cocktails on regular flights | 0 points |
| Qatar | Extensive cocktail list | Tied – #1 |
Cocktails were easy to score, since Emirates and Qatar could run their own bar, and Etihad seems to feel that you can get plenty drunk off spirits and champagne (fair point, but not how we score things here). Score so far:
- Emirates – 9
- Etihad – 5
- Qatar – 7
Non-Alcoholic – Best Business Class Drinks
| Airline | Non-Alcoholic Selection | Rank |
| Emirates | Mocktails, sodas, 5 juice options | Tied – #1 |
| Etihad | Seasonal juices, sodas | #2 |
| Qatar | Mocktails, sodas, juices | Tied – #1 |
All of the airlines had good juice and soda options, as you’d expect. The differentiation here was that both Emirates and Qatar serve mixed drinks, in this case mocktails. They tie yet again. Score so far:
- Emirates – 12
- Etihad – 7
- Qatar – 10
Coffee/Tea – Best Business Class Drinks
| Airline | Coffee/Tea Selection | Rank |
| Emirates | Espresso, coffee, 5 tea options | #3 |
| Etihad | Espresso, espresso drinks, coffee, 6 tea options | #2 |
| Qatar | Espresso, espresso drinks, coffee, chai, hot chocolate, 11 tea options | #1 |
Now things get interesting, and for me to say that when there’s no alcohol involved says something. Qatar blows the competition out of the water in this category. Besides a voluminous tea selection, they offer chai, espresso drinks, and hot chocolate. Etihad was behind with espresso drinks and multiple teas. Emirates, interestingly, had a fairly straightforward set of coffee and tea offerings. Score so far:
- Emirates – 13
- Etihad – 9
- Qatar – 13
Other Notes – Best Business Class Drinks
This week the bonus section goes fallow. Nothing caught my fancy as being particularly noteworthy or interesting that wasn’t captured in another section. There are no additional points awarded to anyone.
With that, we reach our final scoring:
- Emirates – 13
- Etihad – 9
- Qatar – 13
Conclusion: Best Business Class Drinks – Emirates, Etihad, or Qatar
Our second round of the drink face-off is concluded, and we have our winner: a tie! Emirates and Qatar take the cake… or the champagne, followed by Etihad. This competition was pretty interesting in that there was quite a bit of variety between the champagnes, spirits, and coffee/tea service. However, the mocktail/cocktail lists of Emirates and Qatar left Etihad non-competitive. With a cocktail program of their own, this would have gotten more interesting.
Given the fierce competition between the ME3, these sorts of differences can matter when it comes to service. But drinks aren’t the only thing that make a flight. You’ll want to look at the full reviews of each carrier to make your choice, which you can find here:
Not happy with those carriers? Check out all of our business class reviews to find a carrier more to your liking. Or perhaps you’d like to splurge and upgrade to first class? No matter how you fly, Premium Travel Insider has you covered.