As I confessed in the introduction, I wasn’t exposed to fall and winter’s most pervasive, somewhat divisive coffee shop pumpkin spice latté until my early twenties. In the name of research, I knew I had to taste one so I could attempt to make it doable at home—hold the chemical taste, unpronounceable ingredients, and astonishingly high price tag. I grabbed a friend, ordered the famous brew, and took my first sip.
“Not bad,” I thought.
But I knew I could make it my own. I could take this loved (and loathed) drink and transform it into a homemade version with variants. And, I wanted to make the homemade versions drinkable to the last drop—something I wasn’t able to do with the overly saccharine coffee shop version (stalling one-third of the way through the latté was a little embarrassing). Though still a sweeter treat, my takes contain far less sugar than the original, while continuing to taste perfectly familiar and nursery-cozy. The sweet-heat and slightly peppery notes of pumpkin spice blend beautifully with not just coffee, but tea and chocolate, too. Find one you can’t stop sipping and repeat throughout the season.
For the lattés, I’d like to give a special mention to Geoff Woodley of Detour Coffee (detourcoffee.com); he’s a premium coffee roaster working to make sure that no one has to drink bad coffee again. They source some of the best—and my personal favorite—coffees and roast them fresh each week. Geoff assisted me with a little beverage research and generously provided the gorgeous drink styling and latté art on the Classic Pumpkin Spice Latté, Salted Caramel Pumpkin Spice Latté, Pumpkin Spice London Fog, and Matcha Pumpkin Spice Latté with Ginger and Orange Flower Water. Beyond pumpkin spice lattés, you’ll find smoothies and an unbelievably healthy “pumpkin pie” smoothie bowl, pumpkin seed milk, and more. These pumpkin-spiked beverages are easy to warm up or cool down with. Pick your poison and start slurping.
PUMPKIN BUTTER PUMPKIN SPICE LATTÉ
SALTED CARAMEL PUMPKIN SPICE LATTÉ
PUMPKIN SPIKED LATTÉ WITH ORANGE PEEL
MATCHA PUMPKIN SPICE LATTÉ WITH GINGER AND ORANGE FLOWER WATER
GINGERBREAD PUMPKIN AND HAZELNUT SHAKE
PUMPKIN PIE GREEN PROTEIN SMOOTHIE
