6 local spins on the pumpkin spice latte that are anything but basic
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, tinging espresso with nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and other warming spices often combined in pumpkin pie. Given that the spice blend the latte is based upon is more than two centuries old, and that the Starbucks-popularized drink has garnered a pumpkin-rabid fandom and countless copycat recipes for nearly two decades, it appears it’s here to stay.
The Starbucks icon reprised its reign Aug. 30, but independent L.A. coffee shops are currently turning out some of their own, more delicious takes. From Anaheim to Arleta, mom-and-pop cafes are building on the PSL as lattes and even horchata — some requiring juicing fresh pumpkins, simmering small batches of kabocha squash or hand-grinding spices with a mortar and pestle.
To many, it signals the start of autumn. For others, such as Clark Street founder Zack Hall, this is the first year his bakeries and restaurants are diving into PSL territory. The baker avoided the trend for years, but now he has fully embraced the seasonal flavor across his four locations with both a pumpkin spice latte and a pumpkin spice cookie.
“In the beginning I kind of turned my nose up at stuff like that,” he said. “It took me a while to come around, but now that all of that stuff is set, it’s just fun. The staff making them has fun, the customers coming in have fun with it.”
For pumpkin-themed fun made by independent coffee shops, here are six spots to find local, small-batch variations on the PSL in L.A. and beyond.
Be Bright
Local coffee roaster Be Bright just opened its first cafe — and yes, it’s serving its own take on a PSL. To head roaster and founder Frank La, the pumpkin spice latte is a clear indicator that fall is here — maybe even a necessity in Los Angeles “because of L.A.’s lack of actual seasonal weather change,” La said. “We go, ‘Oh, OK. We’re in winter now.’”
La and his wife, Michelle, began offering a pumpkin spice latte last fall at their weekly pop-up within Smorgasburg in the Arts District. This month they launched their first bricks-and-mortar along Melrose, and they’re serving their pumpkin pie latte at both locations.
The Las begin their process by cold-pressing the juice of fresh, peeled pumpkin, sweetened by 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 hot or cold, with Be Bright’s signature “cold foam,” a creamy whipped topping. Cold brew is topped with a cold foam that also utilizes the pumpkin syrup. All three variants get dusted with graham cracker crumble, to replicate pumpkin pie, and all will be sold until the end of November.
Cafe: 7311 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; Sunday pop-up: 777 S. Alameda St., Los Angeles; bebrightcoffee.com
Brain Dead Studios’ Slammers
At Fairfax’s Slammers, pumpkin spice lattes recently made their return. Located on the back patio of Brain Dead Studios, the movie theater and retail shop from lifestyle brand Brain Dead, Slammers’ nutmeg-heavy, real-pumpkin-infused lattes are dusted with ground espresso to resemble the brand’s head-shaped logo.
They’re available either hot or cold, and specifically vegan — a request from the cafe’s coffee supplier, Tim Riley of Heavy Water, who is vegan himself and bemoaned Starbucks’ use of dairy in its pumpkin spice syrup (which contains condensed milk, according to its ingredient list).
“The vegan coffee heads were really looking for someone who could do that kind of guilty-pleasure homage,” said coffee manager Nicholas Murphy. He begins by hand-grinding and toasting spices, including anise, clove, cardamom, cinnamon and fresh ginger, for a syrup to which he adds organic pumpkin purée, careful not to overcook it in order to preserve the gourd’s more vegetal sweetness. For the hot latte, espresso and steamed milk are added to the cup before the espresso is dusted over a stencil of Brain Dead’s logo along with cinnamon and nutmeg. For the iced iteration, the syrup, espresso and cold milk get shaken with ice, creating a layer of foam that’s sprinkled with espresso and the two spices.
Slammers plans to sell its pumpkin spice lattes well into February.
611 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, studios.wearebraindead.com/slammers
Clark Street
Zack Hall never wanted to offer pumpkin spice at his lauded Clark Street bakeries and cafes, which are spread across Echo Park, Brentwood, downtown’s Grand Central Market and, most recently, Hollywood. The latter is a diner in the former 101 Coffee Shop space. This year the baker and founder decided to dabble. Clark Street’s pumpkin spice lattes, both the iced and hot versions, begin with a tea-like infusion of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and ginger. Pumpkin purée, 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 the frothed milk and espresso over it.
Hall didn’t stop at lattes. The baker’s pumpkin spice white chocolate cookies are studded with Valrhona’s white chocolate, which results in an almost cream-cheese-like gooey center to the cookies.
At all four Clark Street locations, both the lattes and the cookies can be found through November — and if there’s still demand, Hall says he might extend them into December.
Echo Park: 331 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 529-4252; Brentwood: 11702 Barrington Court, Los Angeles, (424) 248-0262; downtown: 317 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, (213) 624-2378; Hollywood: 6145 Franklin Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 450-9149; clarkstreetbakery.com
Coffee for Sasquatch
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. This year’s pumpkin spice lattes are available hot, cold or, newly, as cold brew topped with ice cream.
The hot or cold pumpkin spice latte combines pumpkin pie seasoning with puréed organic pumpkin straight in the cup with espresso and milk, sweetened with maple.
The new pumpkin cold brew float is made with condensed milk, pumpkin purée, clove, cinnamon and oat milk, topped with scoops of rich vanilla ice cream. It is, essentially, a drinkable chilled slice of pumpkin pie: a creamy dessert in a cup, though general manager Chris Kyriakos says that doesn’t stop a number of customers from ordering it first thing in the morning. Both options will be served through at least November.
7020 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 424-7980, coffeeforsasquatch.com
Thank You Coffee
Thank You Coffee began serving its play on pumpkin spice in 2020, but the Chinatown coffee counter riffs on Asian ingredients and flavor profiles with options such as the five-spice latte year-round. The team recently reprised its seasonal KSL — or kabocha spice latte, swapping 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.”
But Thank You Coffee’s KSL doesn’t typically involve kabocha at all: Its fall flavor is derived from a blend of toasted spices including cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom and ginger, which are turned into a syrup sans squash. It’s sweetened with a combination of white and dark brown sugar, augmented with ginger bitters, then steeped and strained.
This year, however, after opening a cafe in Anaheim with more space to prep, Yang has begun steaming kabocha, then puréeing it and incorporating it into the spice syrup. The purée version, currently available only at the Anaheim location, adds depth without detracting from the spices, he says. In both locations, a hint of 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.
938 N. Hill St., Los Angeles; 255 N. Anaheim Blvd., Unit D, Anaheim; thankyoucoffee.com
Vallarta
There’s no caffeine in Vallarta’s PSL variant — in fact, it’s not a latte at all. The Latin supermarket chain instead unveiled a new take that, given a key shared ingredient, is a wonder it wasn’t created and sold years ago. Adding pumpkin to the already cinnamon-y classic, Vallarta’s newest seasonal contender is the pumpkin spice horchata.
The supermarket’s in-house chefs German Gonzalez and Jesse Muñoz conceptualized the new drink, and began toying with the recipe in April. The result of months of trials is a final recipe that augments their usual concoction of rice, milk, cinnamon and vanilla with cinnamon sticks, pumpkin purée, pumpkin pie spice, brown sugar and extra vanilla.
The horchata is poured into a vitrolero, nestled among the aguas frescas at the counter, and ladled into cups as ordered — or into 72-ounce plastic jugs. For even larger orders, the pumpkin spice horchata can be purchased in the full 5-gallon vitrolero, as seen at the counter.
Not to be outshone by its newer pumpkin-spice brethren, Vallarta also brought back pumpkin spice tamales, a sweet-and-savory take that adds pumpkin purée, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and diced butternut squash to the tamale’s usual maseca. The downside? They’re so popular that most of Vallarta’s supermarkets — of which there are 27 in L.A. County — sell out by early afternoon. Find both the tamales and horchata on offer until Dec. 28.
Various locations, vallartasupermarkets.com
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