Costa

Costa is Britain's largest coffee chain, and it began as a roaster, not a cafe. Brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa started roasting in London in 1971, supplying caterers with their slow-roasted Mocha Italia blend before opening their own stores. That blend, roasted more slowly than the industrial norm to drive off the sharp notes and leave a rounder body, is still the backbone of the cup. The chain became the dominant force in British coffee retail and was acquired by The Coca-Cola Company in 2019, which put its name on supermarket shelves at serious scale.

The at-home range covers the cafe formats people order by reflex, cappuccino, latte, flat white, mocha and the flavoured sachets, plus straight roast and ground. Sourcing runs through responsibly sourced commitments including Rainforest Alliance, and the Costa Foundation has funded more than 100 schools in coffee-growing regions, a materially larger piece of social investment than most coffee brands its size. For our shelf Costa is the brand to reach for when a customer wants the familiar British high-street cup at home without an espresso machine. The sachets are genuinely convenient, the flavour tracks the cafe rather than disappointing against it, and the Mocha Italia character gives them fuller body than most instant-format rivals. It is comfort coffee, engineered and consistent, and the at-home range tastes like the brand people already chose rather than a budget echo of it.

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