With the days getting warmer and daylight hours being much longer, it is fair to say that we are well and truly into summer.
To mark this, three of the UK’s largest coffee shop chains - Costa, Starbucks and Caffé Nero - have all released new summer drink ranges designed for these warmer days. Among the selection are iced coffees, frappes, matchas, spritzes and refreshers, giving you lots of choice of different drinks to try.
As part of the summer ranges, all three chains have created drinks inspired by the well-loved Italian dessert tiramisu, which is known for its creamy coffee flavour.
Posting to Instagram, Caffe Nero shared their new range of summer drinks which includes the Tiramisu Iced Latte, described by one fan as “delicious”.
Starbucks also revealed their summer range on Instagram last month, including the Tiramisu Cream Range. This again received a raving review from one fan, who called the drinks "insane".
So, with all of these options to choose from this summer, I decided that I should take it upon myself to try these Italian dessert-style drinks to determine their worth, and to help you decide which is the perfect one for you.
Starbucks Tiramisu Frappuccino
In my quest to find the perfect tiramisu inspired drink for summer, I first headed to Starbucks which is offering the Tiramisu Frappuccino. On entering the coffee shop I punted for their dessert inspired Frappuccino, and was excited to give it a try.
As I approached the counter to pick up my Frappuccino I was amazed at how indulgent the drink looked as the sides of my takeaway cup were slathered in a deliciously thick coffee sauce and the drink was topped with a sprinkling of chocolate.
Taking my first sip, I was pleasantly surprised by the tiramisu-like flavour that I was hit with. I found that Starbucks had blended together flavours of coffee and chocolate into a creamy drink, resembling the dessert it was inspired by.
As an iced drink, the Frappuccino was perfectly cooling and sip by sip I could imagine it to be the perfect treat to enjoy while sat in the sun.
The only issue I found with the drink was its sweetness, which I think some could find a little too much. While I enjoyed the Frappuccino, it felt at points that the sweetness of the drink slightly overpowered its coffee taste.
Price: from £5.05
Rating 9/10
Costa Tiramisu Frappé
After enjoying the Tiramisu Frappuccino from Starbucks, I had high hopes for the Tiramisu Frappé from Costa.
As I approached the drink however, I was a little disappointed by its appearance. The Costa Tiramisu Frappé did not have any chocolate sauce or sprinkles which I felt made the drink look a little underwhelming in comparison to Starbucks'.
But on tasting the frappe, I begun to be won back over by its taste.
Unlike the Starbucks Tiramisu Frappuccino, Costa's Tiramisu Frappé is topped with a very generous helping of cream. On taking my first sip of the frappe, I was met with a creamy and sweet drink that felt quite dessert like in itself.
Again, my main issue with the drink was that it was very sweet and felt slightly sickly at points. It was still very enjoyable though - just definitely requires a sweet tooth!
Price: from £4.85
Rating 7/10
Caffé Nero Tiramisu Iced Latte
While Starbucks and Costa both have multiple tiramisu flavoured drinks to choose from as part of their summer range, Caffé Nero slightly differs as it only has the Tiramisu Iced Latte available. Despite this, Caffe Nero does have a wide range of other summer drinks including frappes, as well as matchas and spritzes.
The drink has a generous amount of syrup at its bottom and so I gave it a good stir before drinking to try and evenly distribute this. It is also topped with chocolate sprinkles which again I attempted to stir into my drink to give it a more chocolatey flavour.
Taking my first sip of the drink, I found Caffé Nero's latte to have a slightly stronger taste to it than Costa and Starbucks' own tiramisu-style drinks. However while I really enjoyed this immediate taste, I did feel that I could not pick up the chocolate flavouring that I had found with the other drinks and would expect of a tiramisu.
Despite this, I found Café Nero's drink to be very smooth and could imagine it to be a really refreshing drink for long days in the sun.
While the drink may have looked quite simplistic as it did not include any cream or additional sauces, I found it to be really easy to drink and imagined it would be a go-to for most occasions.
Price: from £5.10
Rating 8/10
