10月23日午间英语新闻：航空公司推出“在空中更好喝的”新型咖啡

> Alaska Airlines has created a coffee that it says tastes better in the sky

航空公司推出“在空中更好喝的”新型咖啡

Drinking bad coffee is just one of the many downsides of flying. Alaska Airlines thinks it has a solution.

咖啡难喝只是乘坐飞机的众多痛点之一。关于这一点，阿拉斯加航空公司认为自己找到了解决办法。

Alaska has created a custom blend with Portland-based roaster Stumptown to make a coffee that’s immune from the altitude-changing effects, like tasting bitter and weak, that airborne-served coffee typically creates.

阿拉斯加航空公司与总部在美国波特兰市的咖啡品牌“树墩城”合作推出了一种定制混合咖啡，这种咖啡不受海拔变化的影响。在飞机上冲泡出的咖啡通常都会受高海拔的影响变得苦涩，咖啡味也会变淡。

The custom coffee, a first for a major airline, will exclusively be served on every Alaska flight by December 1.

这是大型航空公司首次推出这种定制咖啡，从12月1日起将会在阿拉斯加航空公司的每个航班上专门供应。

Taste and smell are inextricably combined and people’s sense of smell is significantly altered in the sky. Food and drinks taste different because pressurized cabins lower blood oxygen levels, which reduces the ability of olfactory receptors (i.e. the ability to smell). The extremely dry air of the cabin, with its humidity levels lower than that of the Sahara Desert, also affects the nose.

口感和气味之间有一种密不可分的联系，人们的嗅觉在高空中会发生很大改变。由于密封机舱会降低血氧水平，从而降低嗅觉能力，这会让食物和饮料的味道变得不同。机舱内的空气极度干燥，湿度水平比撒哈拉沙漠还要低，这也会影响嗅觉。

To combat those effects, Alaska turned to Stumptown’s Holler Mountain, a medium-dark blend, for the base, then infused it with punchier notes that taste like marshmallows, browned butter and toffee as well as a “delicate hint” of citrus oils and cherry essence. As a result, the coffee’s notes have a more “complex” taste when consumed in the air.

为了对抗这些影响，阿拉斯加航空公司选择用树墩城的中深度烘培咖啡豆Holler Mountain打底，加入吃起来像棉花糖、焦黄油和太妃糖的、味道更强烈的咖啡豆，以及带有柑橘油和樱桃香精的清香的浅烘咖啡豆。这样加工而成的咖啡在高空中饮用时有一种更为“复杂”的口感。

The coffee has been in development for a year, with the airline telling CNN that 20 different versions were tested, including during flights and with blind surveys. Alaska Airlines even taste-tested the blend with creamer and Biscoff cookies to “ensure the best combination”.

阿拉斯加航空公司告诉美国有线电视网，这款咖啡的开发持续了一年，他们对20种不同版本进行了测试，包括在飞行途中的测评和不记名调查。该航空公司甚至将这种混合咖啡与奶精和比斯考夫饼干一起试味，来“确定最佳组合”。

However, the freshly brewed partnership with Stumptown means that Alaska is ending its decade-long partnership with fellow Seattle-based coffee company, Starbucks. Alaska said it is “grateful to our friends at Starbucks and proud to have served their coffee on board our flights for years.”

不过，阿拉斯加航空公司与树墩城咖啡的新合作关系意味着阿拉斯加航空结束了与总部在美国西雅图的星巴克咖啡长达十年的合作。阿拉斯加航空公司表示：“感恩星巴克的朋友们，也为多年来在我们的航班上供应星巴克咖啡而感到自豪。”

重点词汇：

olfactory

英/ ɒlˈfæktəri / 美/ ɑːlˈfæktəri /

adj.嗅觉的；味道的

n.嗅觉器官

>US overdose deaths continue to rise, data shows, with ‘devastating impact’ on population

美国药物滥用致死人数持续上升，对人口造成“毁灭性影响

There were 112,024 overdose deaths in the 12-month period ending in May in the US, compared with 109,261 in the 12-month period ending in May 2022, a 2.5% increase.

报道称，截止今年5月的12个月内，全美共有112024人因服药过量死亡，而截至2022年5月的12个月内为109261人，增幅为2.5%。

Dr. Katherine Keyes, a professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, noted that the increase is leveling off.

哥伦比亚大学梅尔曼公共卫生学院流行病学教授凯瑟琳·凯斯博士指出，这一增长趋势正在趋于平稳。

“We still have an extraordinary number of overdose deaths that is orders of magnitude higher than we’ve seen in previous years,” she said. However, “the increase that we saw in 2021 has slowed down.”

她说：“美国仍然有大量的服药过量死亡病例，比前几年高出几个数量级。但较2021年的增速有所放缓。”

Overdose deaths in the US spiked 30% between 2019 and 2020 and rose another 15% between 2020 and 2021, according to the CDC.

美国疾控中心数据显示，2019年至2020年间，药物滥用致死人数激增30%，2020年至2021年间又上升了15%。

“There were extraordinary increases in 2020 and 2021 that have started to flatten out in 2022 – now going into 2023. They’re not declining yet,” Keyes said. “But the pace of the increase is certainly slowing.

“2020年和2021年出现了异常增长，但在2022年开始趋于平缓，2023年仍没有下降趋势，但增长速度肯定在放缓。

"So that is both good news and indicative of a continuing public health crisis.”

CNN称，这既是一个好消息，也预示着一场持续的公共卫生危机。

Keyes highlights that these small accumulation of overdose deaths are still putting 2023 on track to be another devastating year amid the drug epidemic.

凯斯强调，药物滥用致死人数慢慢积累，2023年或将成为又一个毒品泛滥的灾难性年头。

“It’s still slightly higher than previous 12-month periods. So, it certainly still indicates a devastating impact on population health,” she said.

她说：“药物滥用致死人数仍然略高于之前的12个月。因此，这无疑表明药物滥用仍然对人口健康存在毁灭性影响。”

Certain states – particularly in the western United States – have seen steep increases in deaths in comparison with national totals.

与全美总死亡人数相比，一些州，特别是西部州死亡人数急剧增加。

Washington had the highest increase: more than 37% from the year ending May 2022 to the year ending this May, from 2,373 to 3,254.

华盛顿州增幅最高：从截至2022年5月的一年到截至今年5月的一年，增幅超过37%，从2373增至3254。

重点词汇：

epidemiology

英/ ˌepɪˌdiːmiˈɒlədʒi / 美/ ˌepɪˌdiːmiˈɑːlədʒi /

n.流行病学；传染病学