Fall is in the air, and October, my favorite month of the year, has finally arrived. There’s nothing I love more than fall— crunchy leaves, pumpkin patches, scary movies, fuzzy sweaters— but one of those fall traditions I never really got behind was one that Instagram always reminded me about: the pumpkin spice latte.
I love coffee and pumpkin spice, but something about them together never struck me as a fabulous pairing. But the popularity of the PSL has stayed strong since Starbucks released the coffee flavor in 2003, so I figured that 18 years later, the fall-flavored drink may be worth my time.
So now, I’m on a quest to find the best PSL in Habersham County, from Starbucks to your neighborhood coffee shop.
On my hunt, it only felt right to begin with Starbucks. The PSL is by far their most popular drink, selling around 424 million drinks worldwide in 2019, and is estimated to have generated more than $100 million in revenue for the company in 2015. In 2021, with their smallest PSL ringing in at $4.25, those sales likely exceed $2 billion.
While I’ve never been one to grab my own PSL, I’ve been in the presence of many, and I can honestly say that the scent that comes along with a Starbucks PSL is unparalleled. It’s the kind of smell that tells you that it’s fall, like smelling pine trees at Christmastime. With Starbucks’s dining area still closed for COVID-19 safety precautions, the smell in my car on the drive home was worth the price of the coffee.
My Starbucks PSL experience was probably the creamiest coffee experience I’ve ever had. If I wasn’t paying too much attention to the flavor, it felt like drinking a melted-down piece of pumpkin pie. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, the pumpkin flavor is absolutely present in the drink.
My biggest complaint with the Starbucks PSL, though, is that it’s mostly pumpkin and not a lot of latte. I love my pumpkin spice as much as the next person, but when I’m getting a cup of coffee, I want to taste coffee.
Overall, the drink was fine. It was sweet, warm and the pumpkin spice flavor really did make me feel like autumn had arrived, even in 78-degree weather. But the pumpkin overwhelming (and honestly masking) the coffee was a letdown for me.
Starbucks PSL: 3/5
Onto the next coffee shop!
