Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte
Fall is in the air
It’s that time of year when schools back in session, the temperatures are gradually dropping, leaves are changing, and morning practice for nontraditional season have commenced. Say what? Fall is a great time of year, and is most epitomized by the sweet smells of cinnamon, nutmeg and of course pumpkin. Starbucks has made its cultural mark in the Fall season by offering the wildly popular and delicious Pumpkin Spice Latte. When the barista hands you that warm cup and the aromas penetrate your nostrils, everything just seems to make sense for that moment. However, what the heck makes it taste so good? Brace yourselves, vegan amigos.
Soy cheers
No matter if you make this seasonal favorite with Soy and no whip, it’s NOT VEGAN. In fact it’s pretty much a diabetics worst nightmare and incredibly processed and is made primarily with everything but pumpkin. When I read about the truth of the Pumpkin Spice Latte on Your Daily Vegan Blog, I was heartbroken. I look forward to making the Pumpkin Spice Latte my once in a blue moon treat in the Fall, but now I must look away and put it out of my head. But it won’t be hard seeing that the nutritional information the customer service disclosed is somewhat troubling:
Your Daily Vegan did the leg work and now I’m just reiterating the ingredients:
Sugar, condensed nonfat milk, sweet condensed nonfat milk, annotta(a colorant), natural and artificial flavors (which were not revealed), and caramel coloring. Spice flavor: Cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
Wait, so I shouldn’t finish this?
As you see, the key to it’s deliciousness must be in the natural and artificial flavors which are so top secret that the customer service representative cannot disclose what exactly they are. So let’s get this straight, to make a latte you need milk (or soy) and then to make pumpkinny flavors you add more milk products (condensed milk), a commercial produced coloring agent, and some other stuff that’s not pumpkin at all? Yikes, sounds like a lot of chemicals and cholesterol to me. Just not worth the treat.
Now it’s time to figure out how to make a pumpkin latte at home. Back to the lab and time to cook (I’ve been watching a lot of Breaking Bad lately).
What’s going into that super top secret vegan pumpkin spice concoction, George?
George and Julia's Vegan Underground 