By Laura Mulley

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For me, autumn is all about cosiness, which means knitwear, scented candles and curling up on the sofa with a hot chocolate. For a posh café-style drink from the comfort of your own home, Hotel Chocolat’s Velvetiser is a game-changer – and it’s just been upgraded to be even better.

Luckily for me (though perhaps not for my waistline), a new Hotel Chocolat shop and café has recently opened in my town. I’ve found myself popping in far too often for their delicious hot chocolates and, during the warmer weather, their new iced chocolates (essentially the most luxurious chocolate milk you’ve ever tasted). So when I heard that the new Velvetiser could now make both of these at home, I couldn’t resist giving it a go.

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The Velvetiser, first launched in 2018, is a stylish kitchen gadget that creates barista-quality drinks at the touch of a button by heating milk and blending it perfectly with Hotel Chocolat’s drinking chocolate flakes. It’s now been revamped with a new design and improved technology and, priced at £149.95, can now whip up cold chocolate drinks as well as hot ones.

Firstly, I adore the new design; available in three colours, the fluted shape is supposedly modelled on a cocoa pod, and the wooden handle gives it a luxe look, reports the Mirror.

It’s also incredibly easy to use, unlike some appliances (this coffee machine I’ve reviewed took some trial and error); simply plug it in, fill your milk up to the marker, add your chocolate (it’s only designed to be used with Hotel Chocolat’s sachets), twist the dial to hot or cold and press the button. In a couple of minutes, your drink will be ready. This easy, I found myself making one pretty much every afternoon.

The combination of its heat technology and the vortex-like effect that the inner whisk creates perfectly blended chocolate with a velvety texture and a crema on top – and never any lumps. With the new cold function, the whisk pulses at the start to combine the chocolate (which is more finely milled than that for hot chocolate) with the milk.

It also works perfectly well with non-dairy milk alternatives (buy barista quality ones if you can) – not something that can always be said about other milk frothers and drinks makers.

Having never used a Velvetiser before, I couldn’t believe how delicious the drinks were. The hot chocolates were smooth, creamy and, like drinking melted chocolate, and world away from any powdered product I’d had before.

The cold chocolates were equally irresistible and all too easy to guzzle down, and the perfect seasonal switch from my usual iced coffees.

The new Velvetiser also comes with a perfectly-sized cup and mug, plus a selection box of hot and cold chocolate sachets to get you started.

There’s also the money-saving aspect to consider. While at £149.95 the Velvetiser isn’t especially cheap, once you own it then each drink costs you about £1.50, plus the cost of milk – less than half the price of buying a drink out at one of Hotel Chocolat’s cafés.

If I had to find a small negative point, I would say that it’s not very easy to clean thoroughly; although the magnetised whisk comes out easily, the jug and lid can’t go in the dishwasher and the jug can’t be submerged in water, so you just have to carefully wash or wipe out the inside.

Also in the selection box that comes with the machine, there were a couple of flavours I didn’t particularly like (banana, for example) – but of course, going forward I’d just buy the flavours I do like.

In short, if you’ve always had your eye on a Velvetiser – or know someone else who has – then now’s the time to buy it, now that it’s better than ever; I’m completely obsessed with my new drinks gadget.

If you want to spend a little less, you can still find the old hot-drinks-only Velvetiser model on sale at some retailers, including on Amazon, where it’s £100.

Lakeland also sells its own Milk and Hot Chocolate Frother, now reduced from £49.99 to £39.99, and with lots of glowing reviews.