New Costa Coffee, Oat and Banana Smoothie

I've pretty much gone vegetarian nowadays and am always looking to go more plant based, eating very little dairy (bar the odd bit of cheese) and some free range eggs. Going dairy free at home is easy, almond milk completely replaces dairy milk for cereal and porridge and there's loads of other milks that work well in coffee - coconut and oat being favourites of mine.

Unfortunately when out and about, you're more restricted unless you have soy milk, which I'm not as keen on. Small independents often have coconut or almond milk lattes but the big chains like Costa are sorely lacking. However, maybe because it's January and people are looking for healthier options or because Costa are embracing dairy free but there is a new dairy free option using oat milk.

It's a nice clean simple mix of a shot of espresso, banana, oat milk , oats and honey - though I asked for mine without honey to make it vegan (and also reduce the sugar content). Although initially the staff seemed a bit confused on how to make it they got there in the end and I appreciated they took the time to make my order right despite asking for something new they probably hadn't made yet.

It's extra cold and iced which makes it really refreshing and the perfect consistency. It's thicker than a coffee but not smoothie thick which makes it relatively liquidy and refreshing. The oats are completely blitzed up so there's no rough or chunky bits and the flavour is spot on.

It's a fairly mild coffee hit with a bit of sweetness but you still get the natural roasted taste of the coffee. It's certainly a lot less sweet than a lot of the sugary rubbish Costa sell and I liked it for this. Definitely a drink I hope sticks around for longer than the new year.