Starbucks or 7-Eleven - Battle of the Pumpkin Spice Lattes
Tuesday, October 9, 2007 10:16I love autumn. The cool windy days, the changing leaves, the dry, crisp grass, the warm, thick undercoats on the cats, turtle hibernation. I love Halloween and Samhain what with the dip into darkness and death. I love Thanksgiving - mostly because of candied sweet potatoes and hot spicy pumpkin pie.
And I love coffee. And so… pumpkin latte? HELLO?! Wouldnt that just be heavenly to have a coffee that has pumpkiny goodness flavor?
And so, I bought a pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks. I bought a tall without any of my usual soy or non fat modifications. Just gimme all that pumpkiny goodness in one spicy cup!
Have you ever scooped out a pumpkin to make a jack o lantern? You know all that really bland pumpkin pulp? Or have you ever tasted the pumpkin pie filling BEFORE the spices are added thinking it would be pumpkin bliss only to find out how bland it really is? Have you noticed this entire paragraph is crafted entirely from questions?
Well… the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte tastes just like that. Only with less flavor. It didn’t even have a good COFFEE flavor! Oh, ” Spicy, sweet flavors of nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and pumpkin” where for art thou? I was so disappointed that I thought I would be burned on pumpkin spice forever. There was NO spicy flavor at all in their Pumpkin SPICE Latte. It was like drinking liquefied pumpkin pulp with milk. Yummy, no?
Today, I dropped by 7-Eleven to partake in their cheap gas. They had a sign up that any coffee and breakfast sandwich combo was 2.99. So I decided to have breakfast at 7-Eleven (that’s SO another dieting post). Low and behold, their coffee bar included a pumpkin spice latte! Now this isn’t professionally brewed and blended coffee or anything. This is coffee from a mix, probably. The stuff in their coffee machines. And although dubious of the quality, I gave it a go anyways. I filled my cup, snapped the lid on and lifted it very cautiously to my lips ever so slowly.
AN EXPLOSION OF PUMPKIN SPICE FLAVOR OCCURRED! It is magnificently spicy with a dash of the pumpkin flavor I remember actually wanting to drink in a cup. It’s hot - AND? There is even a flavor of coffee.
In this comparison, 7-Eleven won HANDS DOWN for having THE BEST Pumpkin Spice Latte.
mary ann says:
October 10th, 2007 at 6:50 am
I love the ones from the machine at Circle K. It must be similar.
Liara Covert says:
October 12th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
I also love the flavour and taste of pumpkin with cinnamon or other seasonal spices. It reminds me of the tasty hot apple cider with cloves and nutmeg I would traditionally make and drink in the autumn. Nice to know we can make our own pumpkin soup, pumpkin soufflee, pumpkin pie or other pumpkin recipes whenever we can get our hands on pumpkin. I like the fresh stuff best.