Pumpkin Project #3- The Pumpkin Spice Latte

And wrapping up our pumpkin theme for this week.. Drum Roll Please dadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadada   The Pinterest Pumpkin Spice Latte!!!



How many of you have this one pinned?? I'm dying to know.. I'm gonna make a jump and say at least 90% of you who are on Pinterest had at some point planned on trying this one.. And at $4.50 a pop at Starbucks who the hell can blame you! I've seen about 5 different pins claiming to have made the exact replica of the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. Every single one of them is the same damn recipe so I thought, "hmm, these itches must be on to something." 

Here's what it calls for:
2 cups of milk
2 tbsp canned pumpkin
2tbsp sugar
2tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup of strong coffee or 1/4 cup of espresso if you have a machine.
whipped cream

First brew your coffee. Then You're supposed to cook the milk, pumpkin and sugar in a saucepan on medium heat until steaming then remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and pumpkin pie spice. Next transfer that to a blender and process for 15 seconds until foamy (or whisk it till it's bubbly). Pour the mix into your coffee and top with whipped cream and sprinkle a tiny bit of pumpkin pie spice on top.

OK people listen up cause I'm only going to say this once.. DELETE! DELETE!! DELETE this pin now!! This pumpkin spice latte is NO WHERE close to the one from Starbucks!! It's disgusting and the pumpkin clumps up in it and you get a mouth full of slimy, hot pumpkin goo.. It is not good. I spit it out all over my counter. I seriously just threw up in my mouth a little bit just thinking about how bad this thing is! It's too natural tasting for me. That's the only way to describe it. I don't want my latte tasting like i just licked the inside of a pumpkin and that's what this was like. I suppose if you're one of my uber healthy vegan friends you may like this because it's made from real pumpkins, but if you don't give a shiz about any of that-- like me--you'll hate it.

Again, say it with me, Rayna hates to lose.. so I refused to not come out of my effing kitchen with something that half-way resembled the PSL from Starbucks. For about 2 hours I altered the recipe over and over again trying to get something drinkable and Finally.. FINALLY I think I got something a bit similar. ( I may have just burned off all my taste buds on hot coffee so don't get too mad if you don't think this is anywhere close.)

I mixed 2 cups of milk with 1 tbsp of vanilla, 1 1/2 tbsp of sugar (use 2 if you like your lattes sweet, in my opinion the PSL at Starbucks is a bit too sweet and strong) and 1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice and then heated it up on the stove until it was hot to the touch.. I used the Starbucks espresso coffee and filled my mug about half-way. Once the milk mix was pretty warm I whisked it until it was frothy (because pulling out the blender everyday ain't gonna happen!!) Then I poured it in to the coffee, added whipped cream and sprinkled the slightest bit of the pumpkin pie spice on top. I completely omitted the actual pumpkin because every time I used it the taste was still funky. I made Matt my guinea pig and he thought it was similar. He said he'd definitely drink it over spending the cash  at Starbucks every day.

So, there it is. My version of the PSL. It's still not going to be as good because Starbucks uses a thick sauce rather than a syrup or just a spice. If you love your PSL that much but hate the price you may want to just go to eBay and buy the actual Starbucks sauce for like $30 bucks and make them at home. That's what I did when they ran out of the Caramel Brule sauce last Christmas. Turned out pretty good with my cheapo little Mr. Coffee Cappuccino machine. ;)

Until next time, Happy Pinning!

XOXOXOXOXO
The Posh Pinner