A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the seemingly unstoppable spread of Costa Express machines. Today, I thought I’d throw caution to the wind, and – against my better judgement – try a hot chocolate produced by one of these machines.

My previous experience of machine-produced hot beverages has been dominated by overpriced and undrinkable rubbish from hospital vending machines. I’m not quite sure what I expected from this Costa machine: Something resembling coffee shop hot chocolate? Something undrinkable? Something inbetween?

As I pressed the button for a Costa hot chocolate, the one thing I didn’t expect was a cup of warm milk… yet that’s what I got! Not a drop of chocolate in sight! My faith in machine-crafted hot drinks isn’t exactly restored…!