I'm Erin, and welcome to The Coffee Lab Episode 23, the series where we forget coffee snobbery. The Coffee Lab is all about making coffee fun. Join me as I help you kickstart your coffee journey!
If you're new here, I'm an ex-Starbucks barista. I loved working at Starbucks — honestly, of my three barista jobs, it was my favorite. Maybe because I was a Supervisor, meaning I got to boss people around and no longer had to mop the floor at the end of the day, but it was still my favorite.
But despite not donning the famous green apron for five years now, Starbucks holiday drinks still have a special place in my heart. The moment Pumpkin Spice Lattes launch, I'm there, paying an eye-watering £5.70 ($7.52 at time of writing) for what is essentially hot milk, automatic machine espresso, and sugar.
So I thought to myself... why don't I make my own? For research? Can I, an ex-Starbucks barista, make a better PSL? Let's find out. If you want to replicate this, you'll need one of the best espresso machines — or even just instant espresso.
The PSL recipe
Now, I'm not going to pretend I know Starbucks' famous pumpkin sauce recipe. Even though there's no written recipe online, you can find a full list of ingredients on Starbucks' website. Theoretically, you could tinker with these ingredients and make a full-on copycat (The Coffee Lab, fall 2027; watch this space).
However, for your convenience, I bought pumpkin syrup from Amazon. This is the exact syrup I used.
Monin's Pumpkin Spice syrup is sweet, cinnamon-y, with a touch of nutmeg. It's not as orange or as thick as Starbucks' pumpkin sauce, but it's a great copycat.View Deal
For the rest of the beverage, I made a standard latte using my KitchenAid KF3, as it's the machine I'm testing right now. Then I added pumpkin syrup to taste—I started with two teaspoons, but you can add as much as you like. Starbucks adds whipped cream on top, but I skipped it because I don't like it.
So... can I tell a Starbucks PSL and a homemade PSL apart? Let's find out...
If you haven't seen the video embedded above, go watch it! Otherwise, there'll be some spoilers below.
The taste test
I identified the Starbucks PSL immediately.
I really, really wanted mine to be just as good, but it wasn't. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't Starbucks.
My PSL was sweet, warming, and cozy. It tasted more of cinnamon than pumpkin, which is fine if that's your preference, but I personally love the earthy pumpkin flavor. The espresso flavor and milk textures were almost identical, though, so it's not all bad news! With a homemade Starbucks-dupe syrup, this could be genuinely comparable.
The Starbucks PSL honestly tastes like fall in a cup. The cinnamon and nutmeg flavors danced across my tongue, and the silky-smooth, condensed-milk-based sauce gave a luxurious mouthfeel. It was much richer. I couldn't drink a Venti, but that Tall was oh-so-satisfying.
However, the Starbucks PSL costs £5.70. (Mine actually cost me almost £15 ($19.78) because I ordered it on Uber Eats...) Obviously, the homemade latte initially cost much more than that — you've got to factor in the machine, after all — but every Starbucks drink adds up.
Which latte do you think looked better? Do you agree with my taste analysis? Have you got an even better syrup recommendation? Remember, I'm in the U.K., so I don't have access to some U.S.-only brands!
More from Tom's Guide
- Overwhelmed by coffee jargon? Here are the 5 key espresso terms you need to know
- I'm an ex-Starbucks barista — you can make the Iced Brown Sugar Oatmilk Shaken Espresso at home for a fraction of the cost
- People are mixing coffee with Diet Coke (yes, really) — I'm an ex-barista, and I tried the viral 'fridge cigarette'