Costa Coffee has seen sales of its mince tarts rocket this year, with 200,000 sold in just over three weeks – marking year-on-year growth of 70%.

The coffee chain’s total UK sales were up 30% for the 39 weeks to 2 December 2010, with like-for-like growth of 9.4%. Total sales in the third quarter were up 31.1%.

Costa plans to further expand its estate during the 2010/11 financial year, with UK store numbers at 1,175 (708 company-owned and 467 franchise outlets) as of 2 December. The firm hopes to increase this by a further 25 shops by the end of its financial year.

Globally it plans to increase its store numbers to 3,000 by the end of 2014/15 from its current 1,791 total.

Costa launched its Christmas range last month with a number of new products for this year. The range now includes a Chocolate & Hazelnut cake, Black Forest Cupcake, and Gingerbread George biscuits, alongside its Mince Tarts, Christmas Chocolate Yule Log and Brie and Cranberry Panini.