It’s hard to beat a warming hot choc. But is this a gadget too far?

The latest model is completely redesigned. It now also makes cold chocolate drinks – not easy to do. It doesn’t do this by chilling the milk (you add the cold milk of your choice), but it mixes everything together without heating it. The cold-chocolate mix (coffee is to come) is specially formulated for this. When it’s mixed, for extra chill, you add ice.

In truth, the chocolate mix is a very fine powder and the V2 marries it with milk beautifully. Is it worth the 50% more than the original at £150? (It also comes with a cup, a nice glass and a selection of hot and cold drink mixes.) I’m not sure. The design is sleek and beautiful, but not without fault: the button is tricky to turn without pressing it down and thereby turning it on, the inside is fluted, so harder to clean and, yes, you could run a cycle with water and a droplet of washing-up liquid, but you halve the life of the machine doing that. And the ‘max’ line is hard to see. Also how much cold chocolate will you drink? If money is no object and you like the dual function, then buy it. But for my money the old model is the best, as it makes amazing hot chocolate.

My current fave hot chocolate is Bullion’s 90% made with a pinch of ginger, cinnamon and cayenne pepper. It’s warming and sustaining.