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Two cups with foamy drinks, seen from overhead, with small pumpkin and Jack-o'-lantern.

8 L.A. coffee shops putting a local, artisanal spin on the pumpkin spice latte

Sept. 29, 2023 11:56 AM PT

Call it basic, or call it one of the most brilliant marketing ploys the coffee world has ever seen. Heralding fall with the same gusto as an afternoon of apple picking — which does indeed exist within driving distance of L.A. — the pumpkin spice latte is back, featuring espresso with nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and other warming spices often combined in pumpkin pie. Given that the spice blend the latte is based upon is more than two centuries old — and this year, the Starbucks-popularized drink that garnered a pumpkin-rabid fandom turned 20 — it appears the pumpkin spice latte is here to stay.

The Starbucks icon reprised its reign Aug. 24 — nearly a week earlier than last year’s return — but independent L.A. coffee shops are currently turning out some of their own, more delicious takes. From Chinatown to Culver City, mom-and-pop cafes are building on the PSL — some even juicing fresh pumpkins, simmering small batches of kabocha squash or hand-grinding spices with a mortar and pestle.

To many, the drink has long signaled the start of autumn. Darren La Borie of Eagle Rock and Silver Lake coffee shops Muddy Paw is in his eighth or ninth year of offering a pumpkin spice latte made from real pumpkin, not store-bought pumpkin-flavored syrup. “If you ask me my biggest problem with the whole pumpkin spice craze, it’s that people say, ‘Oh, we can put it in a syrup,’” he said. “I’m like, ‘That’s just not the same.’ There’s so much to it.”

Others have only just recently started to explore PSL territory.

“In the beginning I kind of turned my nose up at stuff like that,” said Clark Street founder Zack Hall, now in his second year of pumpkin spice offerings. “It took me a while to come around, but now it’s just fun. The staff making them has fun, the customers coming in have fun with it.”

For pumpkin-themed amusement made by independent coffee shops (and one Latin supermarket), here are eight spots to find local, small-batch variations on the PSL in L.A. and beyond.

Showing Places

Be Bright

Fairfax Coffee $

By Stephanie Breijo

Local coffee roaster Be Bright is serving a whole range of fall-inspired sips, including its own take on a pumpkin spice latte. To head roaster and founder Frank La, the drink is a clear indicator that fall is here. La and his wife, Michelle, began offering a pumpkin spice latte in 2021 at their weekly pop-up at Smorgasburg in the Arts District, and last year, they expanded the offering to their first bricks-and-mortar shop, located on Melrose.

The Las begin their process by cold-pressing the juice of fresh, peeled pumpkin, sweetened with demerara sugar for an almost molasses-like flavor. Two varieties of cinnamon — one a brittle cinnamon bark sourced from Vietnam, the other a variety from Indonesia — are combined for complexity, then added to the pumpkin juice and sugar as it simmers. Once it’s reduced by roughly half its volume, it’s strained multiple times, each time through a finer sieve. Be Bright’s pumpkin pie latte can be served with the cafe’s signature “cold foam,” a creamy whipped topping, while a cold-brew option gets topped with a cold foam that also uses the pumpkin syrup. Both variants get dusted with graham cracker crumble to replicate pumpkin pie. They round out a fall menu that includes a Rooted Fare black sesame crunch mocha and a campfire-inspired cappuccino with maple, vanilla and smoked sea salt.

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Hands cup a pumpkin spice latte topped with decorative foam

Clark Street

Westside Coffee Bakery $

By Stephanie Breijo

Zack Hall never wanted to offer pumpkin spice at his lauded Clark Street bakeries and cafes, which are spread across Echo Park, Brentwood, Larchmont, and a Hollywood diner in the former 101 Coffee Shop space. But in 2022 the baker and founder decided to dabble, and Clark Street’s pumpkin spice lattes — both the iced and hot versions — are returning again this year. They each begin with a tea-like infusion of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and ginger. Pumpkin puree, brown sugar and vanilla are added, and the blend is reduced until it’s thick and syrupy. The baristas keep the syrup on hand and add a shot of it to the bottom of a cup, then pour frothed milk and espresso over it.

Hall didn’t stop at lattes. The baker’s pumpkin spice white chocolate cookies are studded with Valrhona white chocolate, which gives the cookies an almost cream-cheese-like gooey center. Find the lattes and the cookies at all four Clark Street locations.

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Coffee for Sasquatch

Hancock Park Coffee $

By Stephanie Breijo

Pumpkin spice lattes aren’t new to Hancock Park’s Coffee for Sasquatch. Owner Claire Ackad usually offers some sort of whimsical seasonal beverage or two on the menu, and this year’s pumpkin spice lattes are available hot or cold, along with a handful of new fall-themed concoctions.

Ackad’s classic-leaning pumpkin spice latte combines pumpkin pie seasoning with pureed organic pumpkin straight in the cup with espresso and milk, and it’s sweetened with maple and dusted with spice for extra flourish. It’s joined by a new take on green tea — a spiced orange honey matcha — plus a miso caramel latte and, for the cold-brew lovers, a version topped with a thick layer of maple cold foam.

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Overhead photo of a pumpkin spice latte next to a table QR code

Goodboybob

Santa Monica Coffee Bakery $

By Danielle Dorsey

The local coffee roaster that sports a pup in its logo has launched its fall drink menu, including an espresso cola that serves as its take on the espresso tonic, a candy brew with cold Almond Joy foam and a perfect-for-the-season pumpkin spice latte that can be ordered hot or over ice, with organic pumpkin purée instead of store-bought syrup. Goodboybob’s version of Starbucks’ autumn concoction reminds me of the way I order it from the caffeine-slinging mermaid: I always get a small (tall?) with two shots of espresso to temper the sugary syrup. Boo’d Up, as Goodboybob titles the cozy seasonal drink, needs no such amendment and hits all the necessary notes of rustic, smoky and slightly sweet alongside smooth, strong espresso. Pair it with a pastry or chapati, whole wheat wraps with breakfast fillings.

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A triangular maple pumpkin scone on a wood tabletop with a large pumpkin latte in a to-go cup

Muddy Paw Coffee

Eagle Rock Coffeehouse $

By Stephanie Breijo

A fundraising cafe is offering pumpkin spice with a bit of philanthropy. At Muddy Paw Coffee, with locations in Eagle Rock and Silver Lake, each purchase helps rescue dogs, and for nearly a decade, every fall the fan-favorite rendition of the pumpkin spice latte has made its return. “One of our big things at our store, just in general, is that everything’s all natural and from scratch,” said co-founder Darren La Borie. “It’s the way I approach most of my drinks, including this pumpkin spice latte: It has real pumpkin, real spices, real vanilla. With the stuff we carry, it’s the real deal.”

Muddy Paw’s PSL is available hot or iced, and in both, freshly ground spices like cardamom and cinnamon — similar to a classic pumpkin pie spice blend — make their way into organic pumpkin puree, which is sweetened by brown sugar and a hint of agave. The lattes are finished with a sprinkling of the cafe’s custom spice blend, which includes a pinch of black pepper for bite. This year the cafes also are serving a pumpkin spice chai, which uses the from-scratch pumpkin-spice mixture and can be ordered hot or cold. The drinks can be enjoyed with baked goods and other themed snacks made by a range of local bakers: pumpkin bread, gluten-free pumpkin maple scones, pumpkin doughnuts and more.

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A white paper cup with a blue cat head drawn on it, next to a KSL Kabocha Spice Latte sign with a cat in a pumpkin

Thank You Coffee

Chinatown Coffee $

By Stephanie Breijo

Thank You Coffee began serving its play on pumpkin spice in 2020, but the Chinatown and Anaheim coffee counters riff on Asian ingredients and flavor profiles with options such as the five-spice latte year-round. Around fall, however, the scent of gourd spice always makes its return: the seasonal, signature KSL — or kabocha spice latte — which swaps pumpkin for kabocha squash.

“We don’t really eat pumpkin, but we eat a lot of kabocha,” said co-owner Jonathan Yang. “My wife, Julia, and I love kabocha but not all people know it, and we realized this is a neat way to highlight that kabocha is pretty much like a Japanese pumpkin.”

Thank You Coffee’s KSL derives its chief flavors from a blend of toasted spices including cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom and ginger, which are turned into a syrup with a combination of white and dark brown sugars and ginger bitters; it all gets steeped and strained. Yang steams fresh kabocha squash, then purees it and incorporates it into the spice syrup, adding depth without detracting from the spices, he says. In both locations, a hint of coconut condensed milk is added to the lattes — a nod to the ingredient often found in pumpkin pie — and they’re dusted with kinako, a roasted soybean flour, for added earthiness and a pie-crust effect. This year they’re adding another fall-inspired drink to the menu at both locations: a persimmon-and-apple latte that’s meant to evoke coziness and comfort throughout the season.

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Vallarta pumpkin spice horchata in a tall plastic cup with green rings and palm trees, next to a plate of tamales.

Vallarta Supermarkets

North Hollywood Grocer $

By Stephanie Breijo

There’s no caffeine in Vallarta’s pumpkin spice latte variant — in fact, it’s not a latte at all. Last year the Latin supermarket chain unveiled a new take that, given a key shared ingredient, seems a wonder it wasn’t created and sold years ago, and this year, it’s bringing it back. Adding pumpkin to the already cinnamon-y classic, Vallarta’s seasonal contender is the pumpkin spice horchata.

The supermarket’s in-house chefs German Gonzalez and Jesse Muñoz conceptualized the drink and, after months of trials, landed on a final recipe that augments their usual concoction of rice, milk, cinnamon and vanilla with cinnamon sticks, pumpkin purée, pumpkin pie spice, brown sugar and extra vanilla. They’re bringing it back to every location beginning Oct. 4, with no end date in sight. The horchata is poured into a vitrolero, nestled among the aguas frescas at the counter, and ladled into cups as ordered — or into 72-ounce plastic jugs. For even larger orders, the pumpkin spice horchata can be purchased in the full 5-gallon vitrolero, as seen at the counter.

Not to be outshone by its newer pumpkin-spice brethren, Vallarta also is bringing back its pumpkin spice tamales, a sweet-and-savory take that adds pumpkin purée, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and diced butternut squash to the tamale’s usual maseca. The downside? They’re so popular that most of Vallarta’s supermarkets — of which there are 26 in the L.A. region — sell out by early afternoon. Find both the tamales and horchata on offer through the season.

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