THE brains behind a new fast-food venture in Worcester are aiming to turn up the heat during the cold weather - by selling hot milkshakes.

The Shake Shack, which opened on The Cross in October, sells 150 varieties of milkshake made of practically any kind of chocolate bars, cakes or fruit.

The business idea is the brainwave of friends Richard Crosby, Mark Walker and Tania Bartholomew, who saw a similar enterprise while holidaying in Thailand.

The tasty shakes have already gone down a storm, with the shop having built up a stream of regular customers.

Now, inspired by the cold weather, the trio have begun serving their drinks warm.

It comes as this week Worcester has recorded its coldest day of the year so far.

Mark said the hot shakes had made up about 50 per cent of their sales on the recent snowy spell in the city and still accounted for about 30 per cent of purchases.

The favourite warm shakes are Maltesers, Oreo cookies, white chocolate, chocolate orange and Toblerone.

Mark said: "People were saying that if it was freezing outside then it was too cold for a cold drink so we just decided to do it to warm people up. It's actually been fairly busy considering the weather."