BLOGMAS | A Costa Christmas

Hello my lovelies and welcome to Blogmas day 19! So for today I was really debating what I wanted to post as I have a lot of options left to take me all the way through to the new year. But for today I figured we'd talk about the festive menu at Costa. You guys who know me well know I love coffee, especially from Costa. I really look forward to the festive menu every year so today I thought I would talk with you guys about my favourite drinks on this years menu and what I'd recommend trying. 

T H E  M E N U

C O F F E E 

Gingerbread and Cream Latte

Honeycomb Latte

Salted Caramel Cappuccino 

H O T  C H O C O L A T E 

Lindt Hot Chocolate 

Mint Hot Chocolate 

C O L L E C T I O N S 

Billionaires Hot Chocolate, Billionaires Latte, and Billionaires Frostino

Black Forest Hot Chocolate and Black Forest Frostino 

There are of course many more festive things on the menu in terms of food but I never really gravitate towards the festive treats, apart from the Brie and Bacon Panini - that is the best. Come to think of it I still haven't had it yet this year so I better make that happen before it gets taken off the menu for another year. Anyway, now the majority of these I've actually tired this year which is a miracle. Normally I only end up having about two festive drinks on the whole menu. But this year I've tried five drinks in total which is a pretty big step up from my previous record of two. Proud, pat myself on the back for that one. 

Before we get started on the drinks, let's talk about the packaging. Now, I don't hate the Christmas cups this year but they're not my favourite of all time. I wasn't a biggest fan of last years either. Last year they went for the vintage style Christmas jumpers with penguins, Santa Claus, robins, gingerbread men, and snowmen on. And this year they've gone for this kind of old time vintage style illustrations of gingerbread men, Santa Claus, snowmen, the nutcracker, and elves. I still prefer the cups to last years but my favourite cups were the 2014 cups. 

2014 

2015 

 2016 

2017

I feel like 2014 was the best year for Costa's Christmas menu, not just because that was the year of my favourite cup design. But because you could honestly buy so many incredible items on the menu. You could get gingerbread latte, white hot chocolate and cream, black forest hot chocolate, brownie hot chocolate, sticky toffee latte, orange hot chocolate, and a praline cappuccino. Costa at Christmas in 2014 was giving every other coffee shop a run for their money and I loved that. There was so much choice and if you went in often enough over the festive period you probably could've had enough time to try them all. I loved a lot of those drinks from that year and years after that I was gutted that they didn't bring many of them back. I know a lot of people fell in love with the white hot chocolate and cream and a lot of people were outraged that they didn't bring it back after 2015 as it was so popular. 

However for the past couple of years Costa has seemed to not really change their menu that much anymore. It's pretty much always the same drinks with potentially one or two more new ones. For example, last year we had all of the classics that are still on the menu this year. I.e. the gingerbread latte, mint hot chocolate, honeycomb latte, Lidnt hot chocolate, black forest hot chocolate, and the salted caramel cappuccino. But the add on we had last year was the toasted marshmallow hot chocolate which I actually really did like. It was essentially just normal hot chocolate with marshmallows that had been roasted. But I was still a bit disheartened when that didn't make a return this year. And once again this year, we have all our classics again as mentioned above with the addition of the billionaires drink range, a black forest drink range, and hot spiced apple winter warmer. 

Next festive season, I personally want Costa to do it how they did it in 2014. Where they just throw a load of things on the menu - classics and brand new concoctions thrown together and just see what the public like. I'm really bored of seeing the same old drinks on the drinks menu now. I want something fresh, new, and unique. That goes for the drinks as well as the cup design.

Right, onto the drinks.

Our first drink is of course the gingerbread latte. Now even though I want something fresh and new on next years festive menu, I do adore this latte. For me, this truly is the classic Costa Christmas drink. The one that can walk down the red coffee carpet and it remains timeless. Every single year they bring this out and every single year I always make sure I have it. Nine times out of ten this is always the first festive drink I have off their menu every single year because it's the tradition if you're a Costa lover like I am. If you love gingerbread then why haven't you tried this yet? 

Secondly is another classic that has become popular among the public. Yes that's right, it's the salted caramel cappuccino. I love a cappuccino and this was simply delicious. I didn't have this one last year I don't think, but in all fairness last year I wasn't as into hot drinks as I am now. It takes me a little longer to get through them than most people but I enjoy hot drinks a lot more now a days. I really enjoyed this when I had it a few weeks ago and I'd recommend you guys to try it. I couldn't drink it all the time though as it was quite rich and sickly, but nice for a treat. 

Now even though in this picture it's clear to see that I'm having a gingerbread latte. This is actually for the mint hot chocolate. I haven't tried a full drink of this but I've tried a bit of the drink with the cream and green shimmer dust on the top and it's alright, I liked it but I wouldn't choose to order it all the time. Again this came out last year but I didn't have it because I was not a massive hot chocolate fan last year and again, hot drinks weren't my number one last year. Again it's a little bit sickly, so nice to have once in a while but not all the time. But one thing I much prefer about this year is it not having the candy cane attached to it. I thought the candy cane was a cute feature don't get me wrong. However the green shimmer dusting looks a lot more appealing and it's a nicer distinction between a regular hot chocolate and a Christmas one. 

For some reason for the last two almost three weeks I've just been really craving hot chocolate. Now some of you might be thinking, well it is getting closer to Christmas and everyone loves feeling all cosy with a hot chocolate by the fire. And whilst that all sounds lovely and most people probably do that and love it. I am not normally a big hot chocolate fan, as a child I absolutely hated it, I couldn't stand it. And even though I'm older I'm still a bit like take it or leave it as I normally only have it when I properly fancy it. But for some reason lately whenever I go to Costa all I want is a hot chocolate. I don't know if it's just because of the winter/ festive vibes or if I'm genuinely falling in love with hot chocolate. I guess only time can really tell. But lately I have really been enjoying just a classic hot chocolate with marshmallows and cream. It may not technically be on the released Christmas menu as you can get it all year round but it definitely is a Christmas classic that everyone loves all year round. 

In addition to those four drinks, I've also tried the black forest hot chocolate but sadly I don't have a picture of that one for you guys. I was pleasantly surprised that I liked it because I'm really not a fan of black forest flavoured foods. But I actually really enjoyed it, the flavouring wasn't as strong as I expected which I think made it better for me. I haven't had a full drink of this one though so I would definitely like to have a full drink of it before the festive menu comes to an end. Would recommend trying if you either love hot chocolate or black forest flavouring. 

And those are all of the Costa drinks I've tried this year from the festive menu. I think my favourites from this year are definitely the gingerbread latte and the classic hot chocolate. Those are the two drinks I've been reaching for the most since the festive menu came out. Let me know in the comments down below what your favourite Costa Christmas drink this year is. 

As always guys don't forget to follow me on all of my social media so you can keep up to date with everything I am doing over this festive period! You can follow me on Twitter @katielouj0hnson, Instagram @katiej0hnson, Pinterest @katielouj0hnson, and Bloglovin' @ Katie Johnson.

Thank you guys so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed and I shall see you all tomorrow for another 

Love,

Katie