Nonna Mercato in Long Beach makes pumpkin spice lattes with a house-made pumpkin sauce that’s sweetened with maple syrup.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
10 of the best pumpkin spice lattes and seasonal drinks to sip this fall
Call it basic, or call it one of the most brilliant marketing ploys the coffee world has ever seen. Heralding fall with the same gusto as an afternoon of apple picking — which does indeed exist within driving distance of L.A. — the pumpkin spice latte is back.
The Starbucks icon reprised its reign Aug. 22, but independent L.A. coffee shops are currently turning out some of their own, more delicious takes. From Chinatown to Santa Monica City, mom-and-pop cafes are building on the PSL — some even juicing fresh pumpkins, simmering small batches of kabocha or hand-grinding spices.
To many, the drink — often featuring the warming spices of pumpkin pie — has long signaled the start of autumn. Darren La Borie of Eagle Rock and Silver Lake coffee shops Muddy Paw is in his ninth or 10th year of offering a pumpkin spice latte made from real pumpkin, not store-bought syrup. “If you ask me, my biggest problem with the whole pumpkin spice craze, it’s that people say, ‘Oh, we can put [the flavor] in a syrup,’” he said. “I’m like, ‘That’s just not the same.’ There’s so much to it.”
Others have only just recently started to explore PSL territory. Dayglow’s Tohm Ifergan doesn’t normally offer pumpkin spice at his cafes in Silver Lake, Larchmont and West Hollywood. But with new Dayglow outposts in Chicago and New York, where the seasons’ changes are felt more dramatically, he’s spent more time thinking about seasonal drinks and especially the pumpkin spice latte as we head into fall. So this year, he’s combining pumpkin with apple cider and espresso.
“I’ve always thought that pumpkin is such a versatile ingredient,” he said.
In East L.A., a black-metal-themed coffee stand is diving into the season with its first ever pumpkin spice latte, made using whole roasted pumpkins. Others are replacing the gourd with sweet potatoes.
“In the beginning I kind of turned my nose up at stuff like that,” said Clark Street founder Zack Hall, now in his third year of pumpkin spice offerings. “It took me a while to come around, but now it’s just fun. The staff making them has fun, the customers coming in have fun with it.”
Showing Places
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Be Bright
Fairfax Coffee $
Local coffee roaster Be Bright is serving a whole range of fall-inspired sips, including its own take on a pumpkin spice latte. To head roaster and founder Frank La, the drink is a clear indicator that fall is here. La and his wife, Michelle, began offering a pumpkin spice latte in 2021 at their weekly pop-up at Smorgasburg in the Arts District before they expanded to their first bricks-and-mortar shop, located on Melrose, which is where they’ll be offering fall drinks beginning Friday, Sept. 27.
The Las begin their process by cold-pressing the juice of fresh, peeled pumpkin, sweetened with demerara sugar for an almost molasses-like flavor. Two varieties of cinnamon — one a brittle cinnamon bark sourced from Vietnam, the other a variety from Indonesia — are combined for complexity, then added to the pumpkin juice and sugar as it simmers. Once it’s reduced by roughly half its volume, it’s strained multiple times, each time through a finer sieve. Be Bright’s pumpkin pie latte can be served with the cafe’s signature “cold foam,” a creamy whipped topping, and gets topped with crushed graham cracker, while a cold-brew option gets topped with a cold foam that also uses the pumpkin syrup. They round out a fall menu that includes a Rooted Fare black sesame crunch mocha; a campfire-inspired cappuccino with maple, vanilla and smoked sea salt; a spiced apple espresso cream soda topped with cold foam; and a sparkling cider beverage made with cascara syrup and tonic water.
The Las begin their process by cold-pressing the juice of fresh, peeled pumpkin, sweetened with demerara sugar for an almost molasses-like flavor. Two varieties of cinnamon — one a brittle cinnamon bark sourced from Vietnam, the other a variety from Indonesia — are combined for complexity, then added to the pumpkin juice and sugar as it simmers. Once it’s reduced by roughly half its volume, it’s strained multiple times, each time through a finer sieve. Be Bright’s pumpkin pie latte can be served with the cafe’s signature “cold foam,” a creamy whipped topping, and gets topped with crushed graham cracker, while a cold-brew option gets topped with a cold foam that also uses the pumpkin syrup. They round out a fall menu that includes a Rooted Fare black sesame crunch mocha; a campfire-inspired cappuccino with maple, vanilla and smoked sea salt; a spiced apple espresso cream soda topped with cold foam; and a sparkling cider beverage made with cascara syrup and tonic water.
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(Victoria Azalia Salcido / Clark Street)
Clark Street
Westside Coffee Bakery $
Zack Hall never wanted to offer pumpkin spice at his lauded Clark Street bakeries and cafes, which are spread across Echo Park, Brentwood, Larchmont, and a Hollywood diner in the former 101 Coffee Shop space. But in 2022 the baker and founder decided to dabble, and Clark Street’s pumpkin spice lattes — both the iced and hot versions — are returning again this year. They each begin with a tea-like infusion of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and ginger. Pumpkin puree, brown sugar and vanilla are added, and the blend is reduced until it’s thick and syrupy. The baristas keep the syrup on hand and add a shot of it to the bottom of a cup, then pour frothed milk and espresso over it.
Hall didn’t stop at lattes. The baker’s pumpkin spice white chocolate cookies are studded with Valrhona white chocolate, which gives the cookies an almost cream-cheese-like gooey center. Find the lattes and the cookies at all four Clark Street locations.
Hall didn’t stop at lattes. The baker’s pumpkin spice white chocolate cookies are studded with Valrhona white chocolate, which gives the cookies an almost cream-cheese-like gooey center. Find the lattes and the cookies at all four Clark Street locations.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Coffee for Sasquatch
Hancock Park Coffee $
Pumpkin spice lattes aren’t new to Hancock Park’s Coffee for Sasquatch. Owner Claire Ackad usually offers some sort of whimsical seasonal beverage or two on the menu, and this year’s pumpkin spice lattes are available hot or cold, along with a handful of new fall-themed concoctions.
Ackad’s classic-leaning pumpkin spice latte combines pumpkin pie seasoning with pureed organic pumpkin straight in the cup with espresso and milk, and it’s sweetened with maple and dusted with spice for extra flourish. It’s joined by a new take on green tea — a spiced orange honey matcha — plus a miso caramel latte and, for the cold-brew lovers, a version topped with a thick layer of maple cold foam.
Ackad’s classic-leaning pumpkin spice latte combines pumpkin pie seasoning with pureed organic pumpkin straight in the cup with espresso and milk, and it’s sweetened with maple and dusted with spice for extra flourish. It’s joined by a new take on green tea — a spiced orange honey matcha — plus a miso caramel latte and, for the cold-brew lovers, a version topped with a thick layer of maple cold foam.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Dayglow
Silver Lake Coffee
Tohm Ifergan often concocts whimsical drinks in Silver Lake, West Hollywood and the newest shop, in Larchmont (which is currently closed for repairs), but they’re usually tied to films, not seasons. Wanting to add something pumpkin spice to his menus, but wanting to be sure it still fit his cafes’ ethos, he revisited an old favorite: An apple-hewed iced latte called the Fantastic Mr. Fox, a nod to the Wes Anderson movie and its apple-thieving protagonists.
“The addition of pumpkin just made more sense,” he said. “I think apple and pumpkin work really well together, but you don’t see it often.”
Ifergan’s is a refreshing take on the pumpkin spice latte in more ways than one. It’s a little like an Einspänner, topped with pumpkin cream, but it’s layered below: At the base is a house-made crisp apple cider that’s reduced to a syrup, which becomes creamy with the addition of oat milk. The next layer features an on-theme espresso: Fresh apple ferments along with the coffee cherries at origin, which adds a bright, fruity flavor to the beans. The top cream involves pumpkin puree, a range of spices and brown sugar. “[The drink] is actually quite simple,” Ifergan said, “but I think it’s all the little elements that make it nice.”
“The addition of pumpkin just made more sense,” he said. “I think apple and pumpkin work really well together, but you don’t see it often.”
Ifergan’s is a refreshing take on the pumpkin spice latte in more ways than one. It’s a little like an Einspänner, topped with pumpkin cream, but it’s layered below: At the base is a house-made crisp apple cider that’s reduced to a syrup, which becomes creamy with the addition of oat milk. The next layer features an on-theme espresso: Fresh apple ferments along with the coffee cherries at origin, which adds a bright, fruity flavor to the beans. The top cream involves pumpkin puree, a range of spices and brown sugar. “[The drink] is actually quite simple,” Ifergan said, “but I think it’s all the little elements that make it nice.”
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(Sara Knobel / Goodboybob Coffee)
Goodboybob
Santa Monica Coffee Bakery $
This year Erich Joiner’s Westside coffee houses are getting cheeky. Goodboybob Coffee Roasters, with locations in Santa Monica and Manhattan Beach, are leaning into the season by leaning away from pumpkin: Starting Friday, Sept. 27, they’re serving a drink called the FU PSL Sweet Cream. In an “up yours” to the popular pumpkin latte, they’re swapping the gourd for sweet potatoes, then adding condensed milk to the puree along with a fall-spice blend. It’s then whipped into a cloud-like consistency and poured atop iced coffee, an unconventional take on a few fall flavors. The rest of the seasonal roster includes a Forbidden Apple Latte, which combines apple, pie baking spices, espresso and milk, and an autumnal tonic, which adds house-made calamansi syrup to espresso or matcha with tonic water.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Muddy Paw Coffee
Eagle Rock Coffeehouse $
A fundraising cafe is offering pumpkin spice with a bit of philanthropy. At Muddy Paw Coffee, with locations in Eagle Rock and Silver Lake, each purchase helps rescue dogs, and for nearly a decade, every fall the fan-favorite rendition of the pumpkin spice latte has made its return. “One of our big things at our store, just in general, is that everything’s all natural and from scratch,” said co-founder Darren La Borie. “It’s the way I approach most of my drinks, including this pumpkin spice latte: It has real pumpkin, real spices, real vanilla. With the stuff we carry, it’s the real deal.”
Muddy Paw’s PSL is available hot or iced, and in both, freshly ground spices like cardamom and cinnamon — similar to a classic pumpkin pie spice blend — make their way into organic pumpkin puree, which is sweetened by brown sugar and a hint of agave. The lattes are finished with a sprinkling of the cafe’s custom spice blend, which includes a pinch of black pepper for bite. This year the cafes also are serving a pumpkin spice chai, which uses the from-scratch pumpkin-spice mixture and can be ordered hot or cold. The drinks can be enjoyed with baked goods and other themed snacks made by a range of local bakers: pumpkin bread, gluten-free pumpkin maple scones, pumpkin doughnuts and more.
Muddy Paw’s PSL is available hot or iced, and in both, freshly ground spices like cardamom and cinnamon — similar to a classic pumpkin pie spice blend — make their way into organic pumpkin puree, which is sweetened by brown sugar and a hint of agave. The lattes are finished with a sprinkling of the cafe’s custom spice blend, which includes a pinch of black pepper for bite. This year the cafes also are serving a pumpkin spice chai, which uses the from-scratch pumpkin-spice mixture and can be ordered hot or cold. The drinks can be enjoyed with baked goods and other themed snacks made by a range of local bakers: pumpkin bread, gluten-free pumpkin maple scones, pumpkin doughnuts and more.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Mystyx Kafe
East Los Angeles Coffeehouse
This year one of L.A.’s most metal baristas is diving into the pumpkin-spice trend for his first time. Mystyx Kafe owner Julian Anguiano and his partner, Sol Castillo, keep things spooky year round with their East L.A. coffee cart, which offers drinks with names such as Black Magic and Inferno Tea. They never paid pumpkin much attention — until now.
“We’re so busy sometimes, being back and forth, that we hardly get to play with our flavors,” said Anguiano, who’s renovating their full, currently closed Boyle Heights cafe. “People kept asking for it every year and we never had it, so finally we were like, ‘OK, let’s just do it.’”
Anguiano roasts small fresh pumpkins until the flesh pulls easily from the skin for a deep, earthy flavor, then blends it with nutmeg, cinnamon and other baking spices. For a smoother and richer consistency, he adds a bit of cream, then adds an ample squirt of the sauce into freshly pulled lattes on the sidewalk. It’s available hot or iced, and will run until Halloween. Anguiano and Castillo hope to relaunch the full Mystyx Kafe at 2308 E. 1st St. by the end of the year. Until then, there’s pumpkin spice at the corner near Superior Grocers.
“We’re so busy sometimes, being back and forth, that we hardly get to play with our flavors,” said Anguiano, who’s renovating their full, currently closed Boyle Heights cafe. “People kept asking for it every year and we never had it, so finally we were like, ‘OK, let’s just do it.’”
Anguiano roasts small fresh pumpkins until the flesh pulls easily from the skin for a deep, earthy flavor, then blends it with nutmeg, cinnamon and other baking spices. For a smoother and richer consistency, he adds a bit of cream, then adds an ample squirt of the sauce into freshly pulled lattes on the sidewalk. It’s available hot or iced, and will run until Halloween. Anguiano and Castillo hope to relaunch the full Mystyx Kafe at 2308 E. 1st St. by the end of the year. Until then, there’s pumpkin spice at the corner near Superior Grocers.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Nonna Mercato
Long Beach Italian Restaurant
Chef-owner Cameron Slaugh’s Nonna Mercato is many things. Part full Italian restaurant, part pastaio making fresh pastas for home cooking, part market bearing fresh bread and imported pantry staples, and part pastry shop, this Long Beach spot can do it all — especially when it comes to coffee. Head straight to the long counter of the cafe for an Italian-leaning espresso program year round, but you’ll also find an autumnal treat there this fall: a gourmet PSL that gains its flavor from a house-made maple pumpkin sauce. Nonna Mercato’s baristas simmer pumpkin puree with a warming-spice blend and organic maple syrup, and use it as the base for the latte that gets topped with a stencil of a grinning cinnamon pumpkin. Find this special until at least Halloween — and complete the treat with a fresh pumpkin cupcake from the bakery case.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Recreational Coffee
Long Beach Cafe
Long-running Long Beach cafe Recreational Coffee specializes in fair-trade beans that owner Brooklyn Warden and her team roast in house, and while the classics include some tantalizing options (chocolate cappuccinos and ice-coffee crowlers abound), the seasonal menus feature inspired, festive options. This fall the team is running a trio of special brews, including lattes featuring spiced caramel and a shaken iced latte that’s tinged with maple, but when it comes to pumpkin, they’re kicking it up a notch. The cafe’s house-made-syrup ethos extends to the new take on the fall favorite by incorporating brown butter; the result is silky texture and a nutty note beneath the pumpkin’s bright, fresh flavor.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Thank You Coffee
Chinatown Coffee $
Thank You Coffee began serving its play on pumpkin spice in 2020, but the Chinatown and Anaheim coffee counters riff on Asian ingredients and flavor profiles with options such as the five-spice latte year-round. Around fall, however, the scent of gourd spice always makes its return: the seasonal, signature KSL — or kabocha spice latte — which swaps pumpkin for kabocha squash.
“We don’t really eat pumpkin, but we eat a lot of kabocha,” said co-owner Jonathan Yang. “My wife, Julia, and I love kabocha but not all people know it, and we realized this is a neat way to highlight that kabocha is pretty much like a Japanese pumpkin.”
Thank You Coffee’s KSL derives its chief flavors from a blend of toasted spices including cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom and ginger, which are turned into a syrup with a combination of white and dark brown sugars and ginger bitters; it all gets steeped and strained. Yang steams fresh kabocha squash, then purees it and incorporates it into the spice syrup, adding depth without detracting from the spices, he says. In both locations, a hint of coconut condensed milk is added to the lattes — a nod to the ingredient often found in pumpkin pie — and they’re dusted with kinako, a roasted soybean flour, for added earthiness and a pie-crust effect. This year they’re adding another fall-inspired drink to the menu at both locations: a persimmon-and-apple latte that’s meant to evoke coziness and comfort throughout the season.
“We don’t really eat pumpkin, but we eat a lot of kabocha,” said co-owner Jonathan Yang. “My wife, Julia, and I love kabocha but not all people know it, and we realized this is a neat way to highlight that kabocha is pretty much like a Japanese pumpkin.”
Thank You Coffee’s KSL derives its chief flavors from a blend of toasted spices including cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom and ginger, which are turned into a syrup with a combination of white and dark brown sugars and ginger bitters; it all gets steeped and strained. Yang steams fresh kabocha squash, then purees it and incorporates it into the spice syrup, adding depth without detracting from the spices, he says. In both locations, a hint of coconut condensed milk is added to the lattes — a nod to the ingredient often found in pumpkin pie — and they’re dusted with kinako, a roasted soybean flour, for added earthiness and a pie-crust effect. This year they’re adding another fall-inspired drink to the menu at both locations: a persimmon-and-apple latte that’s meant to evoke coziness and comfort throughout the season.
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