Many of you have probably seen James Hoffmann's "Ultimate Pumpkin Spice latte" video. I know this forum is a place that respects coffee and probably doesn't give much attention to such drinks, but they really can be quite nice as a change up from the everyday lattes, cortados, and such.

Welp, I made a video to show my own version that I think is perhaps just as good or better, and more importantly it's way less fussy.

[3min15sec]

Though I love James Hoffman's vids in general, a couple things bothered me about the PSL vid. First of all, for someone trying to make it at home, it's involved as all heck. Ain't nobody got time for... juicing a pumpkin? Yeah, no. And secondly, it apparently requires you spend a months wages and 5 years on camelback, traveling the silk road to acquire spices directly from the shed of a Mongolian cinnamon monger. I mean, let's be honest here - all these spices are gonna get mixed with a bunch of milk, pumpkin, sugar, and coffee, and you're probably not going to be able to pick out the specific nuances between "Peruvian Ceylon Cinnamon" and whatever else.

I used to work at a cafe that served an amazing sweet potato latte, very similar to a PSL, and this recipe takes a lot of cues from their approach. Spicier, less sweet, no more than 12oz, and create an end product that still highlights and pays respect to the coffee.

Anyway, I hope this post doesn't offend your sensibilities too bad. Curious to hear your thoughts!

Edit:

Full Recipe - Ultimate Easy Pumpkin Spice Latte

Syrup-
100 G Light Brown Sugar
100 G Boiling hot water
100 G Pumpkin
Whisk till smooth

Spice Mix:
2 G salt
1.5 G cinnamon
1 G tumeric
1 G nutmeg
1 G ginger
.5 G cayenne
.1 G Allspice

Whisk into syrup till combined
Add ~25 G into espresso shot when making latte for best balance. Top mixed shot with cinnamon before pouring milk, mainly for aesthetics but does add a nice spicy kick.

purplynurply wrote:Many of you have probably seen James Hoffmann's "Ultimate Pumpkin Spice latte" video. I know this forum is a place that respects coffee and probably doesn't give much attention to such drinks, but they really can be quite nice as a change up from the everyday lattes, cortados, and such.

Welp, I made a video to show my own version that I think is perhaps just as good or better, and more importantly it's way less fussy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHwe3_DHj3Y [3min15sec]

Though I love James Hoffman's vids in general, a couple things bothered me about the PSL vid. First of all, for someone trying to make it at home, it's involved as all heck. Ain't nobody got time for... juicing a pumpkin? Yeah, no. And secondly, it apparently requires you spend a months wages and 5 years on camelback, traveling the silk road to acquire spices directly from the shed of a Mongolian cinnamon monger. I mean, let's be honest here - all these spices are gonna get mixed with a bunch of milk, pumpkin, sugar, and coffee, and you're probably not going to be able to pick out the specific nuances between "Peruvian Ceylon Cinnamon" and whatever else.

I used to work at a cafe that served an amazing sweet potato latte, very similar to a PSL, and this recipe takes a lot of cues from their approach. Spicier, less sweet, no more than 12oz, and create an end product that still highlights and pays respect to the coffee.

Anyway, I hope this post doesn't offend your sensibilities too bad. Curious to hear your thoughts!

I love how hoffmann early on stops and says he was over complicating it and I suppose in his head the recipe he pulls out was the simple version. I wanted to try a version using off the shelf spices, thanks for posting yours, I'll try it out.

DamianWarS wrote:I love how hoffmann early on stopys he was over complicating it and I suppose in his head the recipe he pulls out was the simple version. I wanted to try a version using off the shelf spices, thanks for posting yours, I'll try it out.

Exactly lol. I definitely recommend using freshly ground spices where possible but it's not a necessity in this application. I used only 3 fresh ground - cinnamon, all spice, and nutmeg. At the end of the day it's not going to make a giant difference as long as your spices haven't been hanging around for like 5 years in your cabinet.

Or you could buy one of these; https://www.monin.com/us/pumpkin-spice-syrup.html & pull it out of the freezer every Fall.

purplynurply wrote:Exactly lol. I definitely recommend using freshly ground spices where possible but it's not a necessity in this application. I used only 3 fresh ground - cinnamon, all spice, and nutmeg. At the end of the day it's not going to make a giant difference as long as your spices haven't been hanging around for like 5 years in your cabinet.

I live in indonesia, it's nicknamed "spice islands" where I think nutmeg was discovered and at the time more valuable than gold. Allspice I think is a new world plant but most of the spices in that list I can get fresh. It may be no "Peruvian Ceylon Cinnamon" but I can literally go to a cinnamon tree and pull the bark off of it. The indonesian word for cinnamon actually translates to "sweet wood"

JohnB. wrote:Or you could buy one of these; https://www.monin.com/us/pumpkin-spice-syrup.html & pull it out of the freezer every Fall.

I don't think that stuff goes bad so you don't need to freeze, it's also probably pumpkin spice flavoured simple sugar.

They do have expiration dates on the bottles. What else would it be but flavored syrup?? Not a latte fan myself so I won't be finding out how good it is or isn't.

JohnB. wrote:Or you could buy one of these; https://www.monin.com/us/pumpkin-spice-syrup.html & pull it out of the freezer every Fall.

The Ultimate Easy Lazy Pumpkin Spice Latte

Monin does offer this puree: https://www.monin.com/us/spiced-pumpkin ... puree.html Pretty much what the op is putting together.

Neat video, thanks for posting. I had the same reaction to Hoffman's, just a little too involved for me. It was fun watching him go to starbucks in the beginning though.

Mind posting the recipe details in plain text so I can copy paste it easily? I have a file of recipes I want to add it to.