Costa Coffee, Tesco, Purley, Surrey, UK

Another bit of rule breaking. Normally I don't cover chains on this blog, but here I am about to bleat positively about a Costa Coffee outlet – although Costa has been covered before, when I travelled to Glasgow in early 2012 and raved about the lemon drizzle cake. The Costa in question was inside a Waterstone's bookshop. Anyway, I'm writing about Costa because of that great phrase 'value for money' something one doesn't normally associate with this international coffee chain where tea and a bun costs a small fortune.

A pot of tea for just £1 in a Costa Coffee in Purley

I was out early and in need of some kind of relaxation prior to a 40-minute walk home along slippery roads. I knew that Tesco in Purley – one of those huge outlets on two floors – had a Costa Coffee on the first floor and headed there after buying a newspaper.

What surprised me was the price of a cup of tea. Normally it's £1.75 or £1.85, but here in the Costa at Tesco's it was just £1... and that's why it deserves a mention. A nice pot of tea, in a Costa, for a quid and all because the coffee brand is located inside a Tesco store.

I can only assume that Tesco knew how Costa charges an extortionate price for its hot beverages and said to them: 'you can have a store here, but your prices must come down'. And Costa obliged on the basis that it would score on volume sales.

I'd say 'well done' to Costa, but I think the credit should all go to Tesco as I'd imagine Costa bosses quietly seethed about such a deal. "Tea for just £1 a pot?"

Don't forget, folks, it costs no more than 5p to make a cup of tea – or thereabouts – meaning that if tea was sold for, say, 30p a cup, Costa would still be making a huge profit!

One piece of criticism...

In fact, one piece of criticism that has to be levelled at the coffee chains – all of them – is the amount of time it takes to get served, normally because some nob cheese has ordered a complicated coffee drink that requires somebody wearing a shirt with the word 'barista' on the back to make it. Every time I've ever visited a Costa Coffee outlet, there's always been a queue of people at the front of which can be found the 'barista' concocting some complex coffee-based drink on the espresso machine. Sort it out!