Costa Coffee is well and truly warming up for winter after unveiling three new limited edition drinks to its festive food and drinks range.
The “countdown to Christmas is on” at Costa.
After over a week of teasing the new editions to this year’s winter menu, the popular coffee shop chain has finally made the announcement this morning that it has “teamed up with all your festive favourites” to bring a trio of indulgent hot drinks to stores nationwide at the start of next month.
The Terry’s Chocolate Orange Hot Chocolate, the After Eight Hot Chocolate, and The Purple One Latte will all be available to try out from next Tuesday, and given this is one of the first times Costa has collaborated with some of the nation’s favourite festive chocolate treats, you can bet people are excited.
The announcement has already racked up thousands of interactions, shares and comments on all social platforms after just a few short hours since posting.
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At Costa, Christmas isn’t cancelled! In fact, we’ve teamed up with all your festive favourites, to bring you the most wonderful range of the year 🎄💚 After Eight Hot Chocolate, 🧡 Terry’s Chocolate Orange Hot Chocolate & The Purple One Latte 💜 pic.twitter.com/19GRvQAmlt
Luckily for fans of Costa’s Christmas drinks from previous years though, these three new indulgent offerings aren’t arriving in replacement of any usual festive favourites.
The chain also confirmed via Twitter this morning that the much-loved Black Forest Hot Chocolate, Gingerbread & Cream Latte, Irish Velvet Latte, Cinnamon Spiced Cappuccino, and Spiced Apple will all be returning to the Christmas menu this year.
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The announcement of this new festive hot drink team up comes after Costa unveiled its festive food menu for 2020 a few weeks back, which sees lots of new items introduced and some fan-favourites return.
On the savoury side, this year’s new food range includes the Lobster Toastie, British Pork & Bramley Apple Sausage roll, British Turkey & The Trimmings Toastie, Brie, Maple Bacon & Cranberry Stonebaked Panini, Vegan Turkee, Cranberry & Stuffing Bloomer Toastie, and Pigs under Blankets Stonebaked Panini and Pigs & Blankets Mac and Cheese.
If you’re after something sweet, you can try out the new After Eight Muffin and Terry’s Chocolate Orange Muffin to accompany your hot chocolate.
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Or try the new Vegan Lotus Biscoff Cheezecake, Vegan Father Christmas Gingerbread, the gluten-free Vegan Christmas Fruit Cake, the gluten-free Vegan Mince Tart, Rich Chocolate & Hazelnut Shimmer Cake, Jammin’ in the Chimney Cake, a range of Panettones, and so much more.
You can also take your pick of plenty of returning festive indulgences too.
Costa CoffeeCosta Coffee
Speaking on the unveiling of the new food menu, Cathy Port – Head of Food at Costa Coffee – said: “Christmas has always been such a magical time of year at Costa Coffee and we know that this year in particular, our customers are looking to us to make the festive period that extra bit more special.
“We’re incredibly proud to launch our 2020 limited edition Christmas food menu, which we believe is our best yet.
“It features so many iconic products, which we know our customers have raved about, but also brings in some phenomenal new innovations and partnerships to excite and delight returning and new customers. From the decadent Lobster Toastie to the Vegan Turkee, Cranberry & Stuffing Bloomer Toastie and the iconic new muffin collections, there’s something for everyone.”
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Costa’s Christmas Food & Drinks menu will be available at branches nationwide from Tuesday 3rd November.
Stockport County defender Brad Hills ruled out for the rest of the season
Danny Jones
In a big blow to their promotion push, Stockport County have been hit with a major injury and loss to their first-team squad, as defender Brad Hills has been ruled out for what looks to be the remainder of the season and then some.
Not what Hatters will want to hear with crunch-time in and around the playoffs now well underway.
Having emerged as even more of a starring centre-back this year, following his initial loan spell with the club during the previous campaign, Brad Hills has arguably been one of Stockport’s best and most reliable players in 2025/26 thus far – but not County will have to do without him.
Although the exact severity is yet to be fully revealed, the former Norwich City youth academy graduate is said to have hurt his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
Confirming the news on social media, the Greater Manchester side stated: “We regret to inform supporters that Brad Hills sustained an ACL injury in Saturday’s draw at Luton Town that will rule him out for the foreseeable future.
“Our full focus is on supporting Brad throughout his recovery – we know he’ll come back stronger”
For anyone unaware, ACL tears/ruptures are among some of the worst injuries in football, and depending on the extent of the damage, it can take anywhere between six months and a full year to bounce back.
Safe to say, therefore, that supporters have been left gutted by the update, with one commenting, “Awful, awful news”; another simply wrote, “FFS”.
After typing a very long expletive following the show news, fan podcast The Scarf Bergara Wore wrote: “Wishing Bradley Hills a speedy recovery – come back stronger!
Since becoming a permanent signing back in August, he’s earned multiple man-of-the-match awards in blue and white, not to mention contributed to a decent number of clean sheets. He’ll be a big miss in their backline.
While it’s no doubt a big setback as the League One team looks to get promoted into the Championship, the absence could see manager Dave Challinor reshuffle the pack and perhaps even the formation for the remaining fixtures.
One option is Louie Barry, who – depending on the setup – could finally be set for a return to the pitch after he was signed on a third loan deal this past January, but is still continuing his own rehab following a knee operation.
Put it this way, with not many games left, lots of County fans are probably wishing that the pending and potential further changes in the EFL could have come sooner…
Embrace announce intimate live show in beloved Bury music venue
Danny Jones
British alternative veterans Embrace have announced another intimate show here in Greater Manchester, only this time it’s over in Bury at a stunning small-cap arts venue.
It’s not often you get to see such a long-standing band play outside of the city centre so far into their career, especially in gorgeous grassroots spaces like this one.
A fellow Northern outfit, they’ve often been lumped in with that ‘post-Britpop’ era of music, and plenty throw around the so-called ‘dad rock’ label, but honestly, we couldn’t care either way: they remain among the UK’s perennially underappreciated underdogs that never get old, as far as we’re concerned.
Revealing a handful of new live dates for their album launch this summer, they’ll be making just two appearances in the North West on the run.
Writing in the post, the group said: “We’ve lined up a run of exclusive UK dates in venues that are some of the smallest we’ve played in years. It’s going to be special, but capacity is extremely limited.”
As you can see, besides the Jacaranda Baltic in Liverpool, the only other place in this region where they’re set to play for this mini tour is The Met over in Bury.
One of the most beautiful gig spots, not just in the town but in all the 10 boroughs, for our money, the room only holds around 400 standing and roughly 250 seats.
For seasoned artists like this lot, who are more used to playing big festival stages and big domestic headline tours – which they’re also doing later this year – it’s sure to be a special night.
Toasting the release of their ninth studio LP, Avalanche, this spin-off on the tried and tested in-store format wouldn’t be possible without the help of local record store, Wax and Beans, who are promoting and hosting the show.
But we can’t lie, there’s something about the idea of seeing them decades on from when they first tightly-packed out crowds of this size.
If you want to be part of the Embrace album launch tour, you can get ready to grab your tickets at 10am this Friday, 27 March, right HERE. And speaking of great record shops…
Emily Sergeant -
27th October 2020 
