Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte Instant (Ocado) By @cinabar

It is almost September, and this marks the occasion of my first Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, albeit in the form of an instant sachet. It still counts!

So, in honour of autumn, I opened up the box and gosh, it had a lot of air in it. There were only four sachets, so I checked to see if they had missed some, but no, that is all there is supposed to be. The Nescafé ones have seven or eight sachets, so this feels a little sad. The photo really does make the box look as empty as it felt!

I added the sachet, a quarter of the box, to my mug, and it mixed well with the hot water with no lumps. 

The flavour was gorgeous. I love these sorts of spices, so coffee with cinnamon and nutmeg is just divine. It is a proper autumnal drink: coffee, a touch of sweetness and warming spices. What could be more perfect?

Well, having more sachets in the box, I guess.

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte Sachets (Sainsbury’s) By @Cinabar

I always keep an eye on the flavoured coffee shelves in the supermarket, as they’re a favourite treat when I’m working from home. I hadn’t seen these Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte Sachets in Morrisons, Iceland, Tesco, or even on the Ocado website, so it was quite a surprise to find them in a small Sainsbury’s Local. I’m glad they prioritised this one though, as I’ve been looking forward to trying it.

When I opened the box, two things struck me straight away. Firstly, there was a lot of air in the box, it’s small to begin with, but even so, it was nowhere near full. Secondly, and related to the first point, there were only four sachets inside. That was seriously disappointing. It’s clearly stated on the label, but I hadn’t noticed there were so few.

I made a drink, adding hot water, and was pleased that it mixed easily without any lumps and had a nice froth on top. The first sip was lovely, a well-balanced mix of spices and coffee. It wasn’t too sweet, but had enough sweetness to give it depth. It’s a soothing, seasonal drink, with a consistent flavour all the way through. Sometimes drinks from the shop can end up unevenly mixed, leaving a strong concentrate in the last few mouthfuls, but this stayed smooth from start to finish.

A fab autumn treat for an afternoon at home, I just need to buy some spray cream to top it off next time.

Pumpkin Spice Latte (Tim Horton’s) By @Cinabar

As we edge into October, it feels like autumn is officially upon us. Some people call it spooky season, others cosy season, but whatever name you give it, it’s the time for pumpkin spice everything. So it felt only right that my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the year should make an appearance, and this time I picked one up from Tim Horton’s.

Naturally, I went all in and had mine topped with whipped cream. It arrived looking the part, with a generous swirl of cream dusted in pumpkin spice. The topping had plenty of cinnamon and other warming spices, and I couldn’t resist starting there. The cream itself was sweet and spiced, and it set the tone perfectly.

The latte underneath had a smooth coffee base, and the syrup added those classic autumnal flavours. It was sweet, but the balance was spot on, never tipping into being sickly. The cinnamon and spice mix gave a comforting warmth that just worked so well with the season. This drink ticked every box for me. I love cinnamon, so this was an instant hit, and while the days are getting colder, at least we have cosy cups of autumn spices to look forward to.

Pumpkin Spice Drinking Chocolate (Hotel Chocolat) By @Cinabar

Today is my favourite kind of weather; it is not too hot outside, but there is just enough sunshine and a little breeze for it to be perfectly pleasant outside. I also love this season, the start of autumn, because there are new hot chocolate varieties in the shops as it is the official start of cocoa season. I mean, I drink it all year, but it is nice that I can find new flavours now.

Nothing says autumn more than this new drink from Hotel Chocolat, Pumpkin Spice Drinking Chocolate. I love all the autumnal spices too, so I am totally on board with this. It is a milk chocolate-based drink, and I eagerly opened the sachet and made a mug. Marshmallows were on standby.

The drink had a lovely spiced aroma, and the taste was pure, warming, soothing spicy chocolate goodness. These are some of my favourite flavours, so I know that I am a little biassed, but it was just such a nice mix. I could pick up on cinnamon and nutmeg, and they were just set off by the creamy but rich chocolate. I loved this stuff and happily welcome all the autumn spices my way.

Pilgrim Pumpkin Spiced Ale (The Wee Beer Shop @WeeBeerShop @AbbeydaleBeers) By @SpectreUK

I fancy a spicy brew on the run up to Halloween. This Pilgrim Pumpkin Spiced Ale may be something I've been looking for quite sometime. I do love a spicy beer, and I also usually love a pumpkin beer. There has been only one pumpkin beer I didn't particularly enjoy, but that was so strong in other flavours that I couldn't taste the pumpkin flavour.

Produced by Abbeydale Brewery this Pilgrim Pumpkin Spiced Ale was made with pumpkin, Allspice, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg. This 5% in volume ale should warm me up from the dreary cold damp weather outside. On opening the beer there was certainly a spicy aroma from the deep golden ale inside. There was also quite a herbal hop smell mixed in with all those various spices.

On taste the combination of spices in Pilgrim Pumpkin Spiced Ale tickled my tastebuds to begin with, followed by a light bitterness from the hops, and then a fruity pumpkin taste which merged with a the sweet barley malts. This was a warming spicy aromatic beer with a noticeable pumpkin flavour followed by sweet barley malt into the aftertaste.

Pilgrim Pumpkin Spiced Ale was a very flavoursome ale indeed, with a spiciness and fruitiness which went very well with my Chinese takeaway. I also reckon it would go rather well with a cheese and cold meats meal on a Sunday night. It's just lucky I have another can to try it with too.

Pumpkin Spice Cake Espresso (Nespresso) By @Cinabar

Let me start by explaining about Nespresso’s flavoured coffees as they are not what you’d expect if you have never tried them. Normally, a flavoured coffee is an overly sweet, overly flavoured drink from a massive hit of added syrup. I like this style of drink so I’m not complaining. I am more than happy to try the syrup heavy varieties in the high street coffee shops and enjoy every bit. Nespresso are in to subtle flavour with no added sweetness at all. Interestingly, if I have regular coffee I don’t add sugar, so this also works for me.

The Pumpkin Spice Cake Nespresso pods are a limited edition but do appear every year, which is awesome. The box is quite subtle but the pods themselves are a fab orange colour and perfect for the season. I pooped the pod in the machine and made myself an espresso. Even as the coffee was running through I could pick up the spices.

This is a good strong espresso, there is a lovely rich dark coffee taste, and through it there is a warming but gentle spice from cinnamon and nutmeg, and just the subtlest hint of sweetness presumably making up the cake element of the flavour.

This is a soothing autumnal drink, and I love the gentle spices it contains. I will try making up one of these pods as a latte, and think that will be amazing too. A lovely afternoon pick me up.

Califia Farms - Pumpkin Spice Cold Brew (Ocado) By @Cinabar

 

This is my season, I love cinnamon. From here all the way to Christmas, warming spices are everywhere. We start off the season with this Pumpkin Spice Cold Brew by Califia Farms. I ordered this bottle online and I actually ordered two because I didn’t know how big the bottle was. Yes, I know it tells you on the site but only in the small print, I thought the bottle would be a one serving, whereas it actually lasted me a couple of days.

I poured some into a glass and could already pick up the spice. I gave it a sip and it hit the spot completely. There was plenty of spice, and the coffee was sweet but not overly so. There was lots of cinnamon and nutmeg and it had a lovely warming flavour despite being from the fridge and being cold. This was an excellent pumpkin spice coffee. The milk in the drink is almond and it is very mild, just a hint of nuttiness but mostly a thick creamy base. The only thing is, it is a bit weird drinking ice coffee in the autumn. I couldn’t get enough of it in the summer. However, if it is pumpkin spice I’m still in - I’ll just put that jumper on, get my slippers on and have myself an iced Pumpkin Spice Cold Brew.

Christmas (pumpkin) Spice Shreddies - Limited Edition by @NLi10

 Hope you had a good Christmas!! At the point I'm writing this (Mid Dec) we've no idea if we will be in lock-down or isolation or busy visiting family - so I'm stacking up the reviews to be safe.

So - why do I have a Halloween cereal?!

Well - of all the tenuously themed holidays Halloween has always been the best. Spooky packaging and dark spicy flavours is very much my jam.  Here though we have an odd one - while Pumpkin Spice Latte is a Halloween thing to have in the coffee bar as an intro to winter - there isn't really a traditional Halloween breakfast slot.

I opened these, had a sniff, and checked the date - these are fresh well into the summer 2022.  So - I kept them for the crisp December mornings instead.

If you Imagine that Mr Shreddies had popped these in a Santa box, with a Christmas Market made out of Shreddies (and called them Winter Spice or something) then you've got a perfect Christmas cereal.

Familiar enough that you know what you are getting, and with just the right amount of artificially added flavour that your first bites are really strong and the rest just washes into the milk.

Seriously - if you can find these half price in stores like I have been then you are laughing.  The perfect winterfest cereal hidden in a pumpkin shaped package.

Carve ‘N Yams Pumpkin Coffee Porter (@WeeBeerShop) By @SpectreUK

I have quite a few themed beers to write about over the next couple of weeks, so I'm going to concentrate on those rather than writing about snacks during this time. So let the drinking commence! Er… and writing about it, of course…

It's Halloween! I love the Halloween season for beers and snacks and spooky happiness. It's part of the reason why I'm called Spectre. And with this season of screams and chills I do love pumpkin flavoured beers and food. It seems to be the only time of year we get anything flavoured with pumpkin, which seems a shame to me. Cinabar has looked high and low for a pumpkin beer for me this year. Brewers either don't seem to be brewing with pumpkins or have run out of stock.

The Wee Beer Shop imports and finds interesting beers. This Carve 'N Yams Pumpkin Coffee Porter was produced by Elusive Brewing, and is marketed as being a pumpkin pie flavoured Porter. At 5.2% in volume it contains the usual water, barley, hops and yeast, but doesn't mention which ones on the can. It also contains pumpkin, Hasbean coffee, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. It sounds like a group of quite complex flavours for a beer. I have a bad feeling the coffee might overbear the lot! So I'll see what it tastes like…

On opening the can there was a deep rich coffee aroma that was full of spices. This almost black in colour Carve 'N Yams Pumpkin Coffee Porter has a rich dark chocolate malt flavour to begin with, merging with roasted coffee and all the spices of nutmeg, and fiery cinnamon and ginger, and a touch of cloves. What I couldn't note strongly in the flavour was the pumpkin.

This beer to me was reminiscent of the traditional German game of 'hide the sausage'. By eating it, of course, I don't know where your minds are these days! In this beer the brewers hid the pumpkin a little too well for my liking. I loved the combined flavours, but what I predominantly wanted was a pumpkin beer. Sadly this chocolate malt and spicy roasted coffee Porter didn't deliver that pumpkin in the flavour for me. It was really tasty and went very well together with my accompanying fig biscuits, but alas no pumpkins were harmed in the writing of this blog.

Pumpkin Spiced Late Muller Fruit Corner (by @NLi10)

Occasionally we find things for review that don't really conform with what is expected of a product in that category.  After a race that a friend participated in they gave out the usual freebies, and for some reason a bunch of these yougurts.  Considering it was probably around April (I've had these pictures for a while) a Pumpkin Spiced Late Muller Fruit Corner was not what the participants were expecting, and a tray of them made it to work.  So I took a couple to try.

They look standard enough - its a Muller fruit corner after all and these things are now an institution. You get a yougurt, sometimes with two layers, and then you get some jam, and you mix them.

Here we see that the yougurt is a funny colour, and the pumpkin is a little more ominous than your typical raspberry jam.  Also - it smells like a Halloween style treat, but thats probably the psychology of anything that contains pumpkin.

Essentially this is coffee, spices and pumpkin - none of which should be going anywhere near yougurt and possibly only one at a time in the pudding section of a meal.  The whole combination is odd, it's both too strongly flavoured but they all seem to cancel out making the resulting sticky paste very sweet and non-descript. I wasn't a fan. 

THe second yougurt was eaten by a colleague who seeemed to get through it OK but admitted that he'd rather have had a normal one.

The main reason for bothering to review this though is the interesting possibility it throws up.  Coffee yougurts exist, but are for crazy people.  Pumpkin yougurts are probably fine but not in this form.  Spicy yougurt though is an interesting thing.  You see I live in a very Asian area (and love it) and smart people use the yogurt to cool the spices - and this got me thinking.

We have two potential options here - both using fairly plain yougurt - but with the corner being the excitement.

 The first idea is very straight forwards - you try and emulate the classic Asian starter of the poppadom and dips, only we get a huge yougurt and a little spicy mango or the red stuff dip too.  Not sure how theye'd give us popadom too. 

The other idea is that we stick a spicy Bombay mix in the corner  - and its this one I love. There used to be a lot of more childish corners with little chocolate balls next to them and I think that this would go well with that style.

Muller Spice Starter corners, where you get to eat your yougurt before your sandwiches and not feel guilty about it. Call me Muller, lets do business. Maybe I'll have to mock one up.

New Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino (Starbucks) By @Cinabar

It's a strange drink that combines the flavours of autumn with the temperature of summer, but here we have the Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino new on the menu at Starbucks. As it turns out having an unseasonably warm September means this ice blended drink really does hit the spot right now.
I ordered one on a warm afternoon, and the drink arrived topped with whipped cream, and dusted with a mix of cinnamon and spices. I had some chocolate coated marshmallows on the side, as an extra treat.
I had a sip of the spiced drink and enjoyed it. The flavour was very well balanced, it was sweet, but the coffee and spices went well together. There was plenty of cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. The flavour was somewhere between hot cross buns and spiced gingerbread. As a cinnamon fan, this drink was lovely, like having a cinnamon and spices milkshake, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
My only issue is as the nights draw in and the weather cools, I think I’ll be switching to this drinks big brother, the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. Something hot to keep me warm over the autumn.

Pumpking - Evil Pumpkin Beer (Aldi) [By @SpectreUK]

There are lots of uses for a pumpkin. You can gut one, chop a scary face into it and use the slimy contents to make a warming soup, or a refreshing smoothie, a pie, pumpkin bread, or you can even spread it all over yourself to soften your skin! According to Wychwood Brewery the most evil of all pumpkins are saved to make their Pumpking ale. This ruby ale was brewed with (evil) pumpkin and (fairly scary) mace to produce a spicy warming brew to scare away any festive ghouls and ghosts that may creep from the grave on Halloween night and come knocking at your door for sweets and treats, or even blood curdling tricks.

On pouring this Pumpking ale there were spicy undertones to the usual ale type smell. The creaminess of this ale and the sweetness from the crystal malt struck me on first taste. I wasn't expecting that almost toffee taste to begin with. I was instantly glad I had a second bottle to enjoy at a later date. The creamy toffee sweetness was quickly followed by the pumpkin flavour, which had mixed perfectly with the bitterness from the mixture of hops and the added spiciness from mace to produce a creamy sweet and slightly fruity spicy then bitter journey that ended on another creamy note to soften the senses. This ale certainly did warm me up, placing me on cushions of creaminess, then dropping a heavy pumpkin on my head before I dozed off (or possibly knocked out) on the cushions. I reckon this was the evil Pumpking's last laugh just to make me jump and remind me that it's Halloween week. So you'd better watch out, evil Pumpkings are about!

Information on the label;
Brewed by Wychwood Brewery, in Oxfordshire. 500ml bottle at 3.8% in volume.

By Spectre

Post Road - Pumpkin Ale [By Spectre] (The Wineyard & Deli, Morecambe)

I’d like to start Spectre’s write up with a big thank you to The Wineyard in Morecambe for making this post possible. They very kindly sent us this Pumpkin Ale to help indulge Spectre’s adventures in flavoured beer as they stock such an amazing selection of interesting ales. If you aren’t already following @TheWineyard on Twitter, you really ought to be for all the news on the best wines and interesting beers. Thanks again for sending us such an interesting and seasonal product, let’s see what Spectre makes of it...

When I first heard about Pumpkin Ale a few weeks ago, I thought it was some kind of new gimmick for Halloween. I hadn’t realised that our American friends across the great pond have been brewing ales flavoured with barley and with pumpkins since the first American Colonials in the 18th Century. This pumpkin ale is an offering from the Brooklyn Brewery in New York State. I’ve tried and enjoyed pumpkin cake, which tastes slightly carroty, and also pumpkin soup, which was also remarkably tasty. On opening this ale I noticed a spicy smell to it. The ale was then carted off for a lengthy crazy photo session with Cinabar shining torches through it and generally trying to set the house on fire with a pumpkin shaped candle. When I finally got to taste the ale I was taken back by the spicy taste. There is an earthiness to this beer that tastes perhaps of pumpkin, but has a hint of carrot to it also. The spices reminded me of ginger, but not too strongly. The beverage itself had a penetrating ale taste that bites at the back of the mouth poking through the mulled spice taste. This ale was a pleasant surprise indeed and I wanted to drink more than the single bottle I had at my disposal. It has a good spice that made me want to savour it without a food accompaniment whilst watching a late night movie. Perhaps at this time of year a slasher or zombie movie would be best? Failing the scary movie, the spices go well with that mulled taste to make a lovely ale that can be enjoyed all year round, perhaps even as an alternative to mulled wine at Christmas time. As pumpkin ale tastes faintly carroty, I wonder if carrot ale would catch on. I’m sure there are a few bunnies hopping around somewhere that wouldn’t mind giving it a go!

By Spectre