I don't know if you remember a few months back that Costa came out with an egg mayonnaise wrap, which I really didn't enjoy. Since then I have just picked up my coffee and cherry bakewells and not looked on the shelf as to my dismay my local one no longer stocked the chicken wrap I loved. Last week I took a quick glance for some reason and noticed the gluten free wrap was not the egg one, but a coronation chicken one instead! Coronation chicken is a filling I love, which you don't see too often in a free from takeaway sandwich, as they tend to be more plain.

Not wanting to miss out I picked it up and thought I'd give it a try. Terrible I know but I didn't even look at the price through all my excitement, I would assume to be £3-£4 as this tends to be the rate of packaged sandwiches. At 375 calories, it is a reasonable wrap to have for lunch, I have taken a quick snap of the front of the box (above) so you can check nutritional information that may be of interest to you.

The wrap itself is filled with chicken, spinach, cucumber and coronation mayonnaise. Obviously having mayonnaise in this, it is unfortunately not suitable for egg or milk allergy sufferers. Like the wraps I have had before from Costa, I believe it is a Warburtons seeded wrap which are soft and quite thick in texture. I love these wraps so I'm pleased Costa do not try and create their own! This wrap is quite fluffy and has no odd aftertaste. Inside there is the coronation mayonnaise coating the wrap. There isn't too much of this but the favour is there, that sweet slightly mango flavour combined with the spinach and cucumber is a perfect pairing! The chicken was the same flame grilled style chicken pieces there was in the chicken and basil wrap, I assume this is present in all of their chicken flavoured wraps, sandwiches and toasties. There is not any raisins or sultanas in sight, which is an ingredient in a typical coronation chicken everyone may not be a fan of, so I think leaving this out was a good decision as it makes it more mainstream for children and those who just don't like wrinkly grapes!

My only grumble about the gluten free wraps from costa is the consistency. I am aware that the ingredients are more than likely weighed, but sometimes I find the wrap seems a little empty and they make sure from above they look full. I have had two of these wraps in the past week and the amount in them can vary slightly. I would prefer it if they packed them out with spinach, so you feel you get a good full wrap rather than a few bits rattling around. This way it will be more nutrious and wouldn't add many calories!

Overall I do really enjoy these wraps and I would most certainly continue to buy them, I am hoping and waiting to see if the Christmas wrap will make a comeback this year! I don't think I ever got around to blogging it, but it is by far the best wrap of the Costa gluten free wrap family! But then again I love all things Christmasy, so it is hardly a fair test!

What do you think of the slightly more adventurous flavour for gluten free? I think its fantastic. I find plain gluten free sandwiches quite a few places now, but having one with a twist, but isn't too out there is great for those of us getting a little bored of egg or chicken salad!

Hannah x

Three weeks ago I spotted that Costa had released a new gluten free wrap. This one is suitable for the Veggies too as it is free range egg and slow roasted tomato.  One was picked up and put in my order straight away to give a try to see what I thought, also to bring some more veggie foods to this little space on the web. I seem to be quite the meat eater looking at past posts!

This wrap I believe retails at around £3.50, so is similar price to all food in costa. But in general is quite pricey if you consider how much you could make it for. Although it is fantastic for a quick fix whilst out. At 405 calories and lighter ingredients, this wrap is ideal as a more everyday eat as they have clearly been conscious of the calories as we have limited free from options.

A seeded wrap is the foundation to this product. Within this is egg, mayo, tomatoes and apollo lettuce. The egg has been mashed and mixed into the mayo to give more of a sandwich filler texture rather than sliced pieces. Slow roast tomatoes compliment the egg and adds a hit of stronger flavour to what would otherwise be quite bland.

Unfortunately I could not stand the texture of this wrap and really struggled to finish it. Soft egg and wrap with a chewier tomato, as it has been roasted did not contrast too much. It was the really spikey lettuce added to this combination I could not stand. When you have ingredients as soft as egg I feel the only lettuce that will compliment it would be an iceberg or spinach. In comparison the the Urban Eat version which does have a smoother lettuce, this is much softer flavour as well as texture and gives it the slight edge in the egg wrap wars.

What really put me off the wrap completely was I found a HUGE bit of egg shell, and regardless of of dish, if I find egg shell, I cannot eat anymore as the only thing I can compare it to is nails down a black board. It makes me cringe and feel slightly nauseous. In all fairness to the wrap I know this is incredibly rare in pre packed sandwiches and I just got unlucky, but it did ruin the experience for me.

I wanted to love this wrap as it opens my options so much more. Just because I didn't enjoy the textures I wouldn't discourage anyone from trying it as I know I am very sensitive to textures and the flavours were fantastic! But for me personally I would not repurchase this wrap.

I would love to know if you have tried this wrap and felt completely different about it. I would be great to hear!

Hannah x

Always say - "Amondi Please" when ordering your coffee. So I did, with my Amondi in my bag I trotted down to costa to get my decaf americano. I used to be latte girl but with my new cake and coffee habit, I have to cut the calories somewhere!

This rather large cookie has a crispy outside and a softer middle, similar to american style cookies. Made up of both hazelnut and almond, this sweet cookie is perfect dunked in a coffee. There is no gluten or dairy ingredients so is fantastic for dairy suffers too, but does contain eggs.

The ingredients are very simple and consists of: hazelnuts, sugar, free range eggs, hazelnuts, orange zest, orange oil and icing sugar. Good simple ingredients and fully understandable. You may have also noticed the free range eggs! Always pleases me to see this, considering I have a number of pets, I do care a lot about our furry, fluffy and feathered friends!

The biscuit itself is another very unique free from product as it reminds me of something you would see in a typical bakery or even in a supermarkets finest brand. Any product that makes me feel like I have a 'normal' diet I really enjoy.

The grainier texture absorbed the coffee well and honestly was the best coffee treat I have had in ages. Suspended in the cookie was orange peel which gave an interesting zesty twist to a typical sweet ammaretti style biscuit. Who knew coffee and orange went together so well! The bitter coffee juxtaposed the sweet zesty and nutty flavours creating a beautiful complex flavour. The icing glaze and almond on the cookie was also a nice touch.

Retailing at £1.50 per cookie I find that this is very reasonable as this is typically what you could pay in a coffee shop for a mainstream version. However this is not bulked with dietary restrictive wheat flour which makes the other brands versions cheaper to manufacture, as  I have found nuts and nut flours are considerably more expensive.

I can see why this is another award winning product for Honeybuns. Holding a great taste gold award '07  proudly on its packaging. I thoroughly enjoyed this cookie and is nice to see a free from cookie that is not a chocolate flavour. Don't get me wrong I LOVE chocolate but it does make a nice change when I am not in a chocolate mood!

 If you are interested in seeing the Honeybuns range, Click here.

Hannah x

Is it just me that doesn't really know what Christmas cake is? To be honest Christmas cakes confuse me, they all seem very much the same, filled with boozy raisins and always a deep shade of brown and look extremely and suitably stodgy for Christmas.

But being the gluten free food hunter that I am, I found these in Costa, I had to pick one up to try, purely because it was gluten free and I like to try as much as I can find as although gluten free is becoming more mainstream, it's not yet reached the point where you can eat anywhere you fancy and find any food you want.

The other main reason I picked this up is for the icing, I could just eat sheets of fondant icing by itself. I always thought this was the best bit of a birthday cake!

This cake I believe retails for around £1.65, I cannot quite remember, but I do know 10p is donated to the costa foundation, which supports coffee growing communities and considering the amount of coffee I drink I think this is a well deserving charity.

This cake is very rich, which meant I only managed to eat half. The texture is very much like a typical fruit cake with soft dried fruit suspended in a dense, almost sticky sponge. I am not always the biggest fan of fruit cake as I don't like food with too many spices such as cinnamon and clove, but these flavours are not present in this cake. It was actually a very subtle flavour for a fruit cake, combined with the icing and marzipan meant it definitely had the essence of christmas without full on spice explosion.

This cake is packed with fruit, from what I can tell it is essentially cherries and raisins, but there is nothing worse then being promised a cake filled with an ingredient and you get one or two if you're lucky! This also does mean it's quite a bit more nutritious than other cake like a brownie as it is much higher in fibre.

I found this cake was a good middle ground as it was not too spiced but at the same time it was most definitely a christmas/winter cake. It's a very naughty treat and 350ish calories, but that's what christmas is all about!


It's put me in the mood to get out Christmas films and stuff myself silly already!

Hannah x

I first saw these wraps when I was away in Norwich, which was the weekend Christmas had launched in Costa, how exciting! However I only just got around to trying one on Friday, but it was well worth the wait!

If anyone knows me, they know Christmas sandwiches are my favourite part about christmas. Left over turkey, bacon, brie, cranberries. You name it, I love it in a wrap, sandwich or toastie. 

So when I found out there was a gluten free Christmas option, I could have cried with excitement. This is really not an exaggeration, as I love all aspects of Christmas! I believe I paid around £3.50 for this wrap, which is a pretty standard price for any food at a coffee shop, making this very good value for a gluten free product.

At 360 calories this makes a nice light lunch considering it tastes like it should really be a naughty treat. 

This wrap contained turkey, bacon, cranberry sauce, mayo and lettuce. I have found that this is very similar to their regular wrap (see review here) as chicken and turkey are both white meats, but as they are my favourites I really enjoyed this. However there is a twist of having the pop of extra flavour with the sweet cranberry sauce and salty bacon, giving the wrap a much needed Christmassy twist!

My only negative thought to this product was that only one half of my wrap had bacon in it! Obviously this review is based just on the one I've eaten so far, so I may find that the others I eat are evenly filled with bacon. I hope so!

Nevertheless Costa's recent gluten free efforts have not gone unnoticed,  I among many others really do appreciate the fact that there are now bread based products in coffee shops for the gluten free market.

We can now all do a gluten free dance for joy together for being more included with the festive season's snacks!

Now all I need to do is find some gluten free twiglets...

Hannah x

Recently a Costa Coffee opened across the road from my office which has made the local Sainsbury's Cafe up their game too, as they are less than a minute walk from each other!

The gluten free sections in both these places are growing and as a result I am eating more than I should!

Today I am going to compare the mini gluten free bake wells that are offered in both places

Sainsbury's have only just started to stock these and I found them in their main store too, which is great! Both are packaged in a very similar manner and look very similar, a minor complaint I have with the Sainsbury's packaging is that there is no lip to the inner plastic sleeve like the costa one so  some of the icing gets stuck to the packet, but I just pick it off!

Lets look at the basics in terms of nutrition, the calories, fat and carbs are what I tend to look at on sweet treats, these values are for the two cakes in the pack as one serving.

Calories:
Sainsbury's - 237
Costa          - 262

Fat:
Sainsbury's - 10.3g
Costa         - 9.8g

Carbs:
Sainsbury's - 34.2g
Costa          - 42g

I think Sainsbury's is the better choice if you are watching your calories and carbs but they are more or less on a par on fat. But what would you expect from a cake!

Both cakes have a lifespan of roughly a month from day of purchase so there is no need to worry about them going off. As for taste there is not really any difference I find the Sainsbury's bake well is much a softer filling and icing. So I think it is down to personal preference to whether you like a softer icing or firmer!

As the taste of them both I find them to be so accurate to 'regular' bakewells which I used to LOVE. I do find they are a very light coloured pastry which made me apprehensive but it tastes amazing, they are not crumbly and there is no odd powdery texture or aftertaste.

I will be enjoying both as I feel that this battle has no clear winner! And for the sake of 25 calories I wouldn't go out of my way to buy one or the other. They are both tasty and I think I need to stop them before I look like cherry bakewell!

Hannah x

Last week I went to Costa Coffee to have a gluten free lunch. For celiac awareness week Costa released a gluten free wrap. So I had to give it a go.

My lunch consisted of a decaf skinny vanilla latte, a gluten free brownie and the chicken wrap. I was honestly surprised I managed it all!

Chicken & Basil Salad Gluten-free Wraps

I was so excited by this wrap and it did not let me down! The actual wrap is very much like the a gluten free warburtons seeded wrap which I really enjoy, they are a lovely texture and not at all dry. This wrap has a good amount of filling, it consists of chicken pieces, rocket, tomato and basil mayonnaise. The flavour is very fresh but is also very filling, it is a perfect summer wrap as it is not to rich on a hot day (if we see one!) like many of the other types of 'regular' toasties they do. I found this wrap very enjoyable and would fully recommend it.

Belgian Chocolate Brownie

I have had the cherry bakewells many times in costa but I have never tried the brownie, my reasoning was purely because many places sell brownies near me. But I felt in the mood for one! And I am glad I did, this is the best brownie I've had so far, many I've tried are enjoyable but either leave a slight aftertaste or a slight dry feeling in the back of the throat, which this one did not. This brownie also had chocolate chips in it which I believe helps with the moistness of the cake. Overall I really enjoyed this brownie and feel that even people who are not gluten intolerant would enjoy it. 

Have you visited a costa recently?

Hannah x