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STARBUCKS PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE

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Welcome to day 20 of Tag Sale Tastes’ Pumpkinpalooza!

Two-thirds of the way through September, I finally felt ready to enter a Starbucks and order a Pumpkin Spice Latte (“PSL”).

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The Starbucks PSL is made with espresso, milk, pumpkin spice flavored sauce, whipped cream, Starbucks vanilla syrup, and pumpkin spice topping of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.

The guy that took my order was quite patient as I went through my usual routine of trying to figure what the different sizes were.  I gave up, as I always do, and ordered a “small,” which in Starbucks parlance is “tall.”  And black is white and day is night.  I quit going to Starbucks a while back because I every time I’d go there I felt like there was glitch in the matrix.

Here is the barista concentrating intently on the precise formula for my PSL:

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My PSL arrived with a spiffy fall-themed belt around its special fall-themed cup:

It had a cute little pouf of whipped cream and pumpkin spice on top:

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The whipped cream quickly dissolved into the orange-colored hot beverage:

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This in-store PSL was NOTHING like the Starbucks Via Instant Pumpkin Spice Latte, which was so awful that I discarded the unopened packets.  The drink was a little too sweet for me, but other than that it was pleasant.  There was a mild pumpkin flavor, and I appreciated the real spices on top of the whipped cream, which added a nice flavor and aroma.  I can’t say I’d ever crave a PSL, but I can see how those who can afford the 300+ calories and the time to stand in line, and who aren’t afraid to call a small a tall, would look forward to this drink’s arrival each fall.

Rating:  4 pumpkins (out of 5)

PILLSBURY PUMPKIN SPICE ROLLS

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Welcome to day 19 of Tag Sale Tastes’ Pumpkinpalooza!

Today I whacked open a can of poppin’ fresh Pillsbury Grands Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Rolls with Icing:

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Admit it — it’s fun to smack the can against the counter and have the dough explode out of the can, like a culinary version of whack-a-mole.

I see cinnamon on the ingredient list, but sadly these are pumpkin free:

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The directions are simple enough — Pop. Make. Yum!  In case you were thinking of pinching off a bite of dough, the package advises “do not eat raw dough.”  Good save!

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I preheated my oven to 350 degrees, arranged the rolls in the baking pan, and patiently waited for the promised yum.  They filled the house with a cinnamon-y scent as they baked.

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They rose high, and looked great:

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I could hardly wait to spread the icing over the hot rolls:

Ta da!

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I was prepared to like these.  I wanted to love them.  They were so easy and looked and smelled so good.  I loved the slightly orange color, even though there was no pumpkin in them.  I delighted in their pillowy texture.  But we all reluctantly agreed that they were not nearly as good as the plain old cinnamon roll variety that we adore, and in fact, the icing had a rather unpleasant aftertaste.  Don’t get me wrong — they weren’t horrible.  They just weren’t good.  But they should have been.  Back to R&D Pillsbury.

Rating:  3 pumpkins (out of 5)