SWEETIESAL

My first coffee was from Costa and to ensure consistency, I opted for a Latte from each of the locations so that it was a fair test. I always enjoy Costa Coffees, for me they slightly pip Starbucks to the post in terms of Aesthetic with their cups having the sleeve incorporated into the design. It is always consistently a smooth finish, freshly ground beans and steamed milk.

My rating for Costa is 4 out of 5. No improvements and for me quite perfect. The only place they dropped a point was on the expense side of things.

Starbucks was second and again very high standard of coffee. I know from my Starbucks days that consistency is key for the Baristas and training is taken very seriously. I love the personalisation from Starbucks and having my name on something.. simple pleasures eh?! 

The rating I have awarded Starbucks is also 4 out of 5 for exactly the same reason as Costa. It is undoubtedly a high quality beverage but I always think the price point is high given I know exactly what cost price is!

Pret was my next visit. It was a nice enough coffee but what surprised me is that there aren't different size options? I prefer my coffee by the bucket load and I found this one left me wanting more.

For this reason I have given Pret a 3 as I think it loses out on Value for Money and Aesthetic.

Finally I left my Greggs Brew til last. I think sometimes it's easy to see a machine based coffee maker and assume that it will produce a lesser quality drink and while to a certain extent, I guess it's true, it's also important to remember that this is a way of cutting costs whilst delivering freshly made custom drinks. When I think of the rating criteria I do have to say that genuinely I was very impressed. The latte was very fresh, freshly steamed milk and I could hear the beans being freshly ground for the espresso shot. Smell was also great, along with taste and value for money. With a large costing just £2 I thought the drink was very good for the price. There are 2 size options and generally the cup is ok. Nothing special but I'm not sure I would necessarily expect that.

I would award Greggs with 4 out of 5. My only observation would fall under aesthetic as if you requested an extra hot beverage then the lack of sleeve would probably make for quite an uncomfortable experience!