Embrace that “Basic” feeling with this delicious recipe.
The Pumpkin Spice Latte is the epitome of fall. You know we’ve made it to autumn when the smells of cinnamon, cloves, and pumpkin waft out at us on the street and our favorite coffee shops.
This drink is loved and hated, adored and maligned, but it represents the arrival of Autumn for us all.
But what is the history of this infamous drink?
Since the inception of the most famous fall drink it’s been ordered more than 200 million times at Starbucks’ around the globe, the creators of this latte. This drink that heralded a reception like that of a pop star changed the world.
According to Bustle, the Pumpkin Spice Latte came to us from the mind of Peter Dukes, a product manager in Starbucks’ espresso division in 2003. At this point in the franchise, the idea of the seasonal drink wasn’t as pronounced, there was the Eggnog Latte that had been around since the 80’s in some form or another, but there wasn’t a shifting of drinks with every season, like there is now.
At the time, for the 2002 and 2003 winter season, Starbucks produced the first “Seasonal” offering with their Peppermint Mocha which became somewhat of a sensation that year. They realized that they could create limited edition drinks for other points in the year to grow their marketing and their audience.
Dukes was the man tasked with the goal to create a drink for the fall that could replicate the success of the Peppermint Mocha, so in the spring of 2003, he worked on recipes with the Research and Development team at Starbucks creating what would become a cultural phenomenon.
With the R&D team at Starbucks, they sat around and created a list of about 20 different options. They checked in with their customers about what they wanted, and the favorites were sweet drinks with chocolate and caramel. The team then went down to the top four favorites which where they mocked up the drinks. Even though the Starbucks customers didn’t choose the “Pumpkin Pie Latte” as one of their favorites, the R&D Team decided to create the prototype anyway.
According to the mythos of the creation of the Pumpkin Spice Latte, the researchers at Starbucks gathered to eat pumpkin pie while drinking espresso. They attempted to figure out the flavor combination that was most compelling and they decided to focus in on the pumpkin flavor and the spice flavor of the pie. They then started combining these elements into drinks changing the levels with each mockup. Another interesting fact is that they used a pumpkin sauce as opposed to a syrup to replicate the rich texture of a pie, something we add in our pumpkin spice latte recipe.
There was then the question of naming this new drink. At first they decided upon the Fall Harvest Latte, but the title said nothing about what the drink tasted like, so they ultimately found the moniker Pumpkin Spice Latte.
The Starbucks team first tested the drink in Fall 2003 in Washington DC and Vancouver in 100 stores. At that point, they would call the store managers to see how the drink was doing and they realized they had a hit! So the new drink rolled out worldwide in the Fall of 2004 and became the top seasonal drink of all time.
The Pumpkin Spice Latte is filled with pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, milk, and espresso. We’re recreating our own latte at home, and join us with this recipe! You can either buy the spices separately or buy a pumpkin spice mix!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of milk
- 2 tablespoons of pumpkin puree
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon of cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon of cloves
- ⅛ teaspoon of nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract or vanilla syrup
- ¼ cup of espresso
- Whipped Cream for topping
Directions:
- Brew your espresso
- Combine the milk, pumpkin, sugar, spices, vanilla, and espresso and whisk it all together.
- Microwave it for 1 minute.
- Add the Whipped Cream on Top
- Add some spices on top of the whipped cream.
If you try these recipes send us a photo! We want to see! Tag us on Instagram @Jubilanceforpms1 or shoot me an email at alice@jubilance.com, let me know what you think of this awesome latte!
