Hot drinks are having a moment in the sun as this year’s cold and drab summer has left Britons looking to warm themselves up, shops have said.
In what is normally the season of iced coffees and frappuccinos, shoppers are buying more hot chocolate and tea than usual as June’s mid-teen temperatures and rain persist.
Retailers say they have noticed an increase in sales of hot drinks compared with this time last year, when the UK saw daytime temperatures reach 25C for more than a fortnight.
Waitrose said its sales of hot chocolate this month were up almost 30 per cent compared with this time last year.
Temperatures half that of last year
It has also seen a 19 per cent increase in sales of tea bags compared with last summer, adding that sales of its hot beverages were having a “boom” as customers try to warm up.
“In typical British fashion – the weather this summer has been unpredictable and we’ve seen temperatures plummet in June,” Polly Astbury, hot beverage buyer at Waitrose, told The Telegraph.
“Tea and coffee is always a necessity but we’ve seen sales for hot beverages boom more than usual at this time of year as customers turn to drinks to warm up, with sales of tea, coffee and hot chocolate all seeing an increase compared to the same time last year.”
Meanwhile, M&S said sales of its hot teas and coffees have been up 16 per cent year-on-year for the past two weeks.
Temperatures this June are only half of what they were in 2023, the Met Office has said.