Costa has become the latest brand to be hit by shrinkflation after it reduced the sizes of its cups while hiking up prices.

Despite the coffee chain cutting its cup sizes by up to a third, all of the different options have seen a 10p price increase.

It means that a customer who previously paid £2.45 for a medium will now have to order the new large, priced at £2.85 to get the same amount of coffee.

It comes after the British chain was sold to American fizzy drinks giant Coca-Cola for £3.9billion in August last year.

As part of the changes, the high street giant's former small cup, measuring 12 ounces, has been rebranded as a medium.

Costa has become the latest brand to be hit by shrinkflation after it reduced the sizes of its cups while hiking up prices

It comes after the British chain was bought out by American fizzy drinks giant Coca-Cola for £3.9billion in August last year

Meanwhile, the old medium, which is 16 ounces, is now called a large, with the old large, 20 ounces, rebranded as the new cup size 'extra large'.

As part of the new line up, Costa has also introduced a new small options, which contains just 8 ounces, making it a third less than the original.

The change, which is currently being trialled in Hampshire, Gloucestershire, South Yorkshire and Birmingham, has been introduced to both the chain's paper takeaway cups and its in-store china.

British hotel and restaurant company Whitbread, which also owns the Premier Inn hotel chains and Beefeater restaurants, sold Costa to Coca-Cola for £3.9billion in January of this year.

Under the deal, Coca-Cola took on Costa's 2,400 shops in the UK and a further 1,400 in 31 other countries around the world including in China, Saudi Arabia and India.

The change has been introduced to both the chain's paper takeaway cups and its in-store china

It also bought the coffee chain's 8,000 self-service express machines, which are dotted around petrol stations and supermarkets in eight countries including the UK.

Costa was started as a small roastery in Lambeth, south London, in 1971 by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa. They opened their first cafe in 1978.

Whitbread acquired Costa in 1995 and expanded the brand to more than 2,861 stores across 30 countries before announcing the sale in August last year.

The company had intended to break off Costa and run it as a separate firm, but decided that selling would be more profitable.

Costa's new cup prices Old small latte: 12 ounces, £2.15 New small latte: 8 ounces, £2.25 Old medium latte: 16 ounces, £2.45 New medium latte: 12 ounces, £2.55 Old large latte: 20 ounces, £2.75 New large latte: 16 ounces, £2.85 Old extra large: Did not exist New extra large: 20 ounces, £3.05 Advertisement

Coca-Cola's interest was thought to be due to the fact the drinks giant had no coffee products in its range, and Whitbread chief executive Alison Brittain predicted the US firm would use Costa to sell ready-to-drink cold brew coffees.

Earlier this year, national research showed shrinking chocolate bars, cereal boxes and loaves of bread have contributed to a rise in 'shrinkflation' in Britain.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that 206 products shrank in size between September 2015 and June 2017.

They included bread and cereals, meat, sugar, jam, syrups, chocolate and other confectionery.

British brand Cadbury's has been among the hardest hit by shrinkflation since it was taken over by US giant Kraft Foods.

In June 2017, it emerged Andrex trimmed its loo rolls by 21 sheets, down to 200.

Just months earlier Peperami shrunk by 2.5g, weighing 22.5g compared to 25g.

Bags of Doritos were also hit by Shrinkflation in april 2017, with sharing bags dropping from 200g to 180g - despite no change in price.

Mars announced in March 2017 that bags of Maltesers, M&M's and Minstrels were getting smaller, shrinking the pack sizes by up to 15 per cent.

Maltesers sharing backs went from 121g to 103g. Other products to shrink included Birds Eye fish fingers - with the number of fingers dropping by two in a pack, and Kellogg's Coco Pops.

Costa has been approached for comment by MailOnline.