“Pumpkin Spice and everything nice” is the saying that is famous for this time of year, and for a good reason. Seen as a $500 million and growing market according to Nielsen in 2019, the pumpkin spice market is one that has grown rapidly over the years. Now with the rise of social media platforms such as Instagram and Tiktok, where users can share their drink combinations on a daily to millions of users worldwide, baristas and coffee shop workers all over the world find themselves asking at times how people find such odd combinations.

In order to avoid being one of those paying customers that give your local baristas headaches, I decided to ask some of my coworkers at a local Starbucks what some of their drink recommendations would be.

The Pumpkin Spice option from Starbucks has been a mainstay since its debut in 2003, which resulted in sellouts across stores to the point where many locations had difficulties keeping up with demand. Starbucks offers the syrup to be put into any beverage but for its displayed recommendations, it shows the Pumpkin Spice Frappucino, Pumpkin Spice Latte, and then the Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew.

Starbucks has changed up their Apple Crisp Oatmilk Macchiato after its debut fell flat among many fans last season, with them changing out the regular milk from last year in exchange for oat milk this year. The flavoring of the syrup has also changed some ingredients, with them also implementing the use of ristretto shots on the Macchiato from this season forward.

Ristretto shots are simply just a different way of the espresso machine pulling the shot, as Ristretto in Italian translates to “short shot”. The pull of the shot is meant to maximize the flavor of the coffee. If you are looking to increase the taste pallet on your lattes or espresso beverages moving forward I would definitely recommend asking for Ristretto shots if your coffee shop serves them. Another type of shot pull is what is known to baristas as a long shot, which is very much indicative of its name meaning in it is a long pull of the espresso shot. This means that the shot will contain a little more water, having some people say that this makes the shots taste more bitter.

Another way to change up your shot taste would be to ask for the shots in a blonde roast, where the bean itself is different. This means you can have a blonde ristretto shot or blonde long shot, as it is a common misconception that the way the shot is pulled and the bean it’s extracting the espresso from having a correlation.

For the Starbucks lineup of beverages this fall, their seasonal lineup of flavors consists of the infamous Pumpkin Spice and their Apple Brown Sugar. Both of these syrups can be added to any of your already favorite Starbucks beverages but if you needed a little bit of help our friends at a local Starbucks in Visalia have got you with some recommendations!

For privacy reasons I did not name the baristas directly, but these are some of the recommendations that they had for the fall season!

Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew with Pumpkin Cream Cold Foam
Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew (white mocha as a recommended) sweetener
Vanilla Chai with Oatmilk and Vanilla Sweet Cold Foam
Double Blonde Shot over ice with two pumps of White Mocha and Vanilla Sweet Cold Foam
Brown Oatmilk Shaken Espresso with two pumps of white mocha and Pumpkin Cream Cold Foam

As for any drink with the pumpkin foam topping or just if you wanted to spice it up a bit, the pumpkin spice topping is available but is an extra charge unless it is advertised with the beverage!

Now I hope that you are able to find yourself a beverage for whatever occasion may fall upon you in these upcoming months. Whether it’s an early morning and you need a jumpstart to your day or you are just looking for a tasty drink to enjoy during this season, I hope this article gave you some ideas.