Pumpkin Spice Latte
Real pumpkin, cooked into a spiced syrup first. That cooking step is the whole difference between a latte that tastes of autumn and one that tastes faintly of vegetable.
At a glance
- Espresso : milk
- 1:5
- Active time
- 12 min
- Total time
- 15 min
- Makes
- 1 large cup
- Serve
- Hot, with cream
- Kit
- Espresso machine
Ingredients
Note: For the syrup: 100 g pumpkin purée, 150 g sugar, 150 ml water, 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice, a pinch of salt, 1 tsp vanilla.
Method
-
Cook the purée with the spice
Put 100 g of pumpkin purée and 2 tsp of spice in a small pan over medium heat and stir for three or four minutes until it darkens and smells nutty rather than raw.
This is the step that matters. Raw pumpkin purée tastes green and vegetal, and that flavour does not go away in milk. Cooking it drives off water and starts the Maillard reaction, which is where the caramel and roasted notes come from.
Cook 3 to 4 minutes -
Add sugar and water, simmer
Stir in 150 g of sugar, 150 ml of water and a pinch of salt. Bring to a gentle simmer for about five minutes until it thickens slightly, then take it off and stir in the vanilla.
Simmer 5 minutes -
Strain it, or do not
Pushing it through a fine sieve gives a smooth syrup that will not clog a bottle and sits cleanly in the drink. Leaving the pulp in gives a thicker, more rustic latte with a little texture.
Strained, it keeps about two weeks in the fridge. Unstrained, closer to one.
-
Build the drink
Put 45 g of syrup in the cup, pull a double espresso onto it and stir.
Syrup first and espresso onto it, so the heat of the shot loosens the syrup and combines it properly. Added last it sinks and sits in a sweet layer at the bottom.
25 to 30 seconds -
Steam the milk and pour
Texture 200 ml as for a latte and pour it in.
Pumpkin syrup is thick and will slightly deaden the foam, so pour from a little higher than usual to mix it through.
-
Cream and spice on top
A spoonful of softly whipped cream and a pinch of spice dusted over it.
Why this works
Pumpkin on its own tastes of very little. It is about 90 percent water, mildly sweet and faintly vegetal, and in a drink with 200 ml of milk and a shot of espresso it would be undetectable if you simply stirred the purée in. What people recognise as pumpkin spice is the spice blend, and what makes it taste of pumpkin rather than of spiced milk is what happens to the purée in the pan.
Cooking it does two things. It drives off water, which concentrates what sweetness is there. And it starts the Maillard reaction between the sugars and the small amount of protein in the purée, producing the roasted, caramelised, faintly nutty notes that read as baked pumpkin rather than raw squash. Three minutes of stirring is the difference.
Salt matters more than the quantity suggests. A pinch suppresses bitterness perception, which lets the spice and the caramel through without more sugar.
The drink was introduced by Starbucks in 2003 and, notably, contained no pumpkin at all for its first twelve years. Real purée was added to the recipe in 2015 following public pressure about the ingredient list. It remains the most commercially significant seasonal drink in coffee, and the reason a great deal of the industry treats September as a second Christmas.
Variations
- Iced: build the syrup and espresso base, cool, then pour over ice with cold milk.
- Vegan: oat milk and coconut whipped cream. The syrup is already dairy free.
- Less sweet: 30 g of syrup rather than 45 g.
- With a pinch of black pepper in the spice mix, which sharpens it.
Made it?
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Questions
Can I use pumpkin pie filling instead of purée?
Not for this recipe. Pie filling is already sweetened and spiced to its own formula, so you cannot control the sugar or the spice. If it is all you have, leave out the sugar entirely and taste as you go.
Why does my PSL taste vegetal?
The purée was not cooked long enough. Raw pumpkin tastes green and that flavour survives into the drink. Stir it in a dry pan with the spices for three or four minutes until it darkens and smells nutty before adding anything else.
How long does the syrup keep?
About two weeks refrigerated if strained, around one if you leave the pulp in. It makes enough for five drinks.
What is in pumpkin pie spice?
Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves, usually with allspice. A workable mix is four parts cinnamon, two ginger, one nutmeg, one allspice and half a part cloves.
Is there actually pumpkin in a cafe PSL?
Now, yes. Starbucks added real pumpkin purée to the recipe in 2015, twelve years after the drink launched, after sustained criticism of the ingredient list.