New Gluten Free Toastie in Costa

This week a brand new gluten free toastie has gone into Costa stores! This isn't the first time a gluten free savoury offering has been available in the high street chain coffee shop, but will this gluten free toastie stick around longer than the other sandwiches did?

The last time Costa saw a savoury gluten free choice was 3 years ago, in 2022, when they teamed up with M&S and stocked their sandwiches including one of their Made Without sandwiches. Unfortunately, it didn't stick around all that long and after a few months it disappeared. Previous to this they stocked their own branded gluten free sandwich in 2020 but it was taken off the shelves due to lack of sales after a couple of months.

For Costa this brand new mozzarella and pesto gluten free toastie is something completely different, it is toasted in their "innovative packaging", which isn't quite as unique as they think as Starbucks have previously done a gluten free toastie in a similar sort of packaging (unfortunately that too was discontinued ages ago but was in for a year or more before it did vanish) and Marks and Spencer also do a toastie in the same way (a lot of people are leaning towards M&S and Costa using the same supplier as the toasties are almost identical).

The packaging allows the toastie to be cooked in their grill while remaining in the bag to prevent contamination. The stores should also serve in the bag and not be opened by the staff prior to serving.

This new lunch time option will sent you back between £5.80 and £6.50 (around 50p more than the none gluten free choices) depending on branch location (aka cities and services are higher priced). You will have to be fast buying it too as stores can only order a limited amount and being a vegetarian option too it's likely to sell out fast.

If you want to make a full meal of it, Costa have stocked gluten free cakes for years which are wrapped and usually found by the till. They do have 4 or 5 options but not all stores stock them all, sometimes it is just brownie or flapjack, but you can find Bakewell tarts and millionaires shortbread in some branches and at Christmas a gluten free mince tart is usually available too.

There are also plenty of drinks choices, there was an issue previously with oat milk contaminating steam wands, so make sure to check the branch you are using has switched back to the gluten free alternative if your drink of choice needs the steaming. If they haven't, avoid anything using the steam wand - tea, coffee without frothed milk, fruit coolers and some frappes (check allergen guide as some toppings aren't safe) are amongst the safe options. If they are using the gluten free oat milk then you also have the choice of hot chocolate (just check the allergy book if they are specials in case toppings aren't safe) and coffee based drinks such as lattes.

Have you tried the new toastie from costa? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below.