Pumpkin Spice Flavored Drinks

When fall hits, AKA September 1st, the craving for all thins pumpkin and pumpkin spice kicks in. So for this month we are going to be looking at all the fun options you can find if you want to get your fall on. A lot of the drinks I tried were to be truthful were just disappointing.

Drinks You Can Pick Up At The Store

Great Value Pumpkin Spice Ground Coffee 

These were in the form of K cups so I could just make one cup at a time. This coffee was really smooth. It was pumpkin spice like, but was mostly cinnamon forward in taste. I would by this one again. This is Walmart's store brand and can only be found there.

Great Value Pumpkin Spice Hot Cocoa

This mix is really good and very addictive. I will say if you follow the directions on the container the drink is really watered down. I would actually recommendat least doubling the amount of mix it says to add. This is a Walmart store brand product and can be found at most walmarts in the fall.

In the above photo this is the sprinkles and marshmallows that you see on top. They pair nicely together and I would also recommend this as well. I don't think that it would really add a lot of flavor to plain hot cocoa.

Pumpkin Spice Tonic

This for the most part just tasted like a cream soda with very little taste.

Sweet Harvest Pumpkin (Celestial Seasonings)

Even though they call it Pumpkin Spice it could have been Chi Spice as well because the only thing yo get is the spice flavor, very strong. An hint of pumpkin is lost.

Pumpkin Spice Apple Cider (Riveridge)

As you can see from the picture being of an empty container, this cider did not last long. Even though it was good and spicy, there was really no pumpkin flavor. It was as if they just put in the spices associated with pumpkin pie. This was actually a picture of our second jug for the season. I will buy this again, but I know to not expect pumpkin. Also a Walmart find.

Lester's Fixins Pumpkin Pie

Not what I was expecting at all. I know that cinnamon is one of the flavors in pumpkin pie, but there is more to a pumpkin pie then just cinnamon. This was only a cinnamon soda. What this soda actually reminded me of is those cinnamon hearts that you get for Valentine's Day. It would be if you melt them down and add sugar to it.  I wouldn't call it bad, I actually liked the flavor, but it was not pumpkin pie. I found this soda at Rocket Fizz and I think the only reason it is drinkable is because it was not actually one of their brand sodas.

Drinks At Restaurants

For pumpkin drinks most of what you find out there will come from restaurants and not the store. It seems like every restaurant you go to will have their own take on it.

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino

For a lot of people this is the gold standard of pumpkin spice drinks and what makes it feel like fall for them. To me though this drink and Starbucks in general are overrated. I have actually had better pumpkin spice drinks at small coffee shops. To me Starbucks never puts enough flavoring in their drinks for the pumpkin to really come through. I want to have the flavor hit me in my face and make me want to wrap up in my favorite scarf. Just as a side note, if you have issues with dairy I would recommend going with almond milk since the nut flavor feels like fall and blends well with a pumpkin flavor. This one I got at the Starbucks at the Gaylord Hotel and Resort's Starbucks/deli (BTW the Gaylord has been responsible for some of my worst food experiences ever and I would not recommend them for anything) during NDK 2022. I've had about the same experience with this frappuccino at every Starbucks I have tried it even when I ask for extra flavoring.

Beantree Coffee Pumpkin Spice Snow

For this drink you could choose to have boba in it or not. It had a good blend of of both pumpkin and spice. It was really good and I would order it again.

Dunkin' Nutty Pumpkin Iced Coffee

More nutty then pumpkin. The label showed that they put in equal parts of pumpkin and hazelnut flavoring, but the hazelnut way over powered the pumpkin. If they stayed with the 8 pumps I would say 6 pumpkin to 2 hazelnut would help the pumpkin come out more. For a better ratio I would say 7 pumps pumpkin to 3 hazelnut. Overall it did taste good, but I would not recommend it if you are looking for a pumpkin fix. Good for a nutty fix.

Pumpkin Spice Specialty Latte (Krispy Kreme)

So far of the hot restaurant coffees this one had some flavor, but my actual ordering experience was the worst. My mother and I split this drink and even when we first got it, the drink was barely warmer then room temp. It went along with a bad doughnut experience as well. I don't know if this drink would be better at a different Krispy Kreme, but I would hope so. Avoid the location North of Denver and just stick to the one by Park Meadows.

Dazbog Coffee (Make it yourself)

Even though the Dazbog website has official pumpkin drinks on their website, the one I went to did not offer them. So I decided to try and make my own out of what they offered. I took their Mocha Freeze and had them add 10 pumps of their pumpkin syrup. It was actually really good. Even if coffee shops don't directly get into the fall spirit you can still get something to put you in the fall mood.

Caramel Pumpkin Brulee Freeze (Dutch Bros)

https://www.dutchbros.com/menu/featured-drinks/caramel-pumpkin-brulee-freeze

Milk that slightly tasted like something, but it was neither caramel nor Pumpkin. It for the most part was just straight milk and they could have doubled or tripled the flavoring and I still don't know if that would be enough. I don't think that these places understand that that milk/dairy products can reduce whatever flavoring you are adding to it and because of that you need to put in a lot more. The best part of this was the pumpkin drizzle that they had on top.

7 11 Pumpkin Spice Latte

https://www.7-eleven.com/products/coffee/pumpkin-spice-latte

Oddly this was not only the cheapest of the drinks in this section (restaurant/coffee shop bought), but it was also one of the best pumpkin drinks I have had. The flavor was clearly there and I didn't have to add anything to it.

Pumpkin Slush (Kung Fu Tea)

It really did taste just like they threw a pumpkin pie in a blender. It was a great blend of the flavors associated with pumpkin pie and they really brought the pumpkin flavor. Really good and I would get it again.

Top Picture From: https://fofarms.com/post/not-your-basic-coffee-diy-pumpkin-spice-latte-recipe/