My First Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL)

Fall is right around the corner (I mean that literally, tomorrow is the first day of fall) and I decided what better time to try my first pumpkin spice latte than now.

It sounded like the perfect way to kick off the fall season.

Now you may be wondering, “How have you never had a pumpkin spice latte?”

I love fall for many reasons. I love the weather and the changing foliage. I love boots, and sweaters, and beanies. But most of all I love the flavors. I love pumpkin and apple everything. And after a hot sweaty summer, by the time fall rolls around and the temperatures start to drop I am so excited to get back in the kitchen and start baking again.

So once again, you may be wondering, “So why no PSL?”

Clearly, the flavor isn’t a problem. I’m down for anything pumpkin. But there are three main reasons I have never tried a PSL.

The first reason, I’m not a huge coffee person. I like the taste of coffee (in things). For example, I love coffee ice cream. And, while I was in Hawaii I did develop a “coffee” habit which has grown since I got back to California. But I put coffee in quotations because although I have a coffee almost daily, my coffee is almost more milk than anything else. My morning coffee consists of a glass filled with ice (all the way to the top), then filled halfway with cold brew coffee, topped with soy or coconut milk, and finished off with a splash of creamer. Like I said, I enjoy the taste of coffee, but I’m not a coffee fan.

My second reason, which I’ve kind of touched on, I’m not a fan of hot drinks. I’ll drink tea when I’m sick or on really cold mornings, but for the most part, I like my drinks iced. And I know Starbucks does have an iced version of their PSL but everyone always talks about the hot, so I never really saw a reason to run out and try it.

My third and final reason, I’m just not a fan of Starbucks (which ironically was solidified just this morning in a new Bailey Sarian video I watched). First off, I try to support more local shops of all kinds and avoid chains whenever I can. Besides that, Starbucks was just never my place. In college, I spent a lot of time at Coffee Bean, but for some reason, I’ve just never been big on Starbucks.

So what changed?

Well, honestly nothing really. My coffee intake has increased ever so slightly, and sometimes I will increase my at-home coffee preparation to 2/3 coffee and 1/3 milk. But I still have no desire to become a Starbucks girlie (you really should check out the Bailey Sarian video I mentioned earlier), and I still don’t like hot drinks.

Instagram and my need to write a new blog post were probably the main drivers behind me finally trying a PSL.

Although I’m not a big coffee drinker, my Instagram algorithm thinks I should be and feeds me so many DIY at-home coffee recipes. One I saw recently that really caught my eye was a DIY Starbucks copycat pumpkin cream. It looked so good and I really wanted to try it, but thought I probably should try the original first.

And finally, I needed a new blog post, it’s been almost 2 weeks, and I like food content. It seemed like a fun easy activity that I could share.

The Results

So earlier this week, my husband and I decided to take a trip to our local Starbucks and load up on seasonal drinks. Although I was there for the infamous PSL, I also wanted to try the Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew (so I could compare it to the DIY I saw) and figured I’d give the iced PSL a shoot too, just to give it a fight chance in my heart.

Even if I was going to become a Starbucks girl, I don’t think I’d really ever purchase these drinks again. They weren’t horrible (and I will be making my homemade pumpkin cream), but I don’t really get the hype.

If I had to rank them in order from best to worst for me it would probably be –

1. Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew – The cream on this was delicious! But I’m just not a fan of their coffee taste.
2. Hot Pumpkin Spice Latte – The traditional PSL tasted okay, but again I’m not a fan of hot and I couldn’t get over the unnatural color
3. Iced Pumpkin Spice Latte – I like sweet, but this was too much, plus it tasted very watered down.

Cover Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay