Well fall has arrived and with it comes the coffee industries version of autumn in a cup…The Pumpkin Spice Latte. In previous years Caffe Garibaldi has kept it simple, refusing to surrender to the “basicness” of this trend. But this year with a new owner at the helm we decided to get experimental. We all know the flavour of pumpkin pie is delicious so we decided that we would give in to mass (white girl) appeal and put it on the menu!

October arrived and we excitedly uncapped our bottle of pumpkin spice latte syrup to prepare our first PSL, a momentous occasion to be sure! The syrup was poured, espresso was brewed and milk was steamed. Finally, we were ready to taste. Then shock, confusion, dismay and ultimately…sadness. This Pumpkin Spice Latte was a dud. Memories of walking on crunchy, coloured leaves, the familial hubbub of Thanksgiving Dinner did NOT come rushing back to me. Instead my mouth was full of a bitter, alcoholy (not in a good way) latte, definitely not what we signed up for. So, maybe the ol’ Pumpkin Spice Latte is not as basic as we all thought. The creation depends on the quality of pumpkin spice syrup and if you haven’t had the chance to sample all the syrups then it turns out you’re better off staying simple. Or….

Just say screw it! And make up your very own delicious fall latte and that’s exactly what we did. Inspired by a recent find on our boss’s trip to England we now serve up a mouth-watering Peanut Butter Latte, it is rich, creamy, nutty and of course, delicious. Just goes to show it’s usually better to carve your own path rather than follow the pack.

With fall taken care of, our attention can turn to winter (dare I say Christmas?) flavours. Thoughts of Gingerbread and Peppermint & Chocolate come to mind…. but what else is there?? What winter flavour warms you up? What says Christmas in a glass (don’t say eggnog!) to you? Shortbread Latte? Turtles Latte? Figgy Pudding Latte?….ummm maybe not, but we got some time to work it out! Until then we’ll just keep sippin’ on our Peanut Butter Mochas, yeah that’s right, peanut butter and chocolate for the win!