The Thinking Cup Pumpkin Spice Latte

The Thinking Cup's PSL is the most expensive one I've tried so far. While the $4.17 price puts it only a little over a quarter more expensive than Peets, the high price belies its itty bitty size. Despite this, it was one of my very favorite PSL's.

What's tricky about rating this one is that Thinking Cup starts out with a better latte than the competitors, and it's the flavor of the Stumptown espresso and perfectly frothed milk that set it ahead of the other PSL's. The PSL syrup itself is only so-so. In fact, true latte fans might prefer to skip the syrup and just go for a regular latte instead.

Location: The Thinking Cup on the Boston Common
Price: $4.17
Calories: ? It's pretty tiny, so probably not too bad.
Room Temp Flavor: so small it'll evaporate before it reaches room temp.

Pumpkin Rating: Perfectly-cut jack-o-lantern with a superfluous wig on top

Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Spice Latte

I’ve been meaning to try the Dunkin Donuts pumpkin spiced latte for a while.  The DD’s near my school has a special on lattes in the evening, which is a great deal for a before-class treat. Yesterday, while I was hanging out with some friends I finally pulled the trigger.

Ordering the drink was a lot more complicated than I expected it to be. Gone are the days of Dunks lattes coming from a reconstituted powder mix. Now I had to answer “hot or iced,” “what kind of milk” and “with or without sugar.” (I was particularly confused by the sugar question because I think the flavor mix already includes sugar…?) Anyway, I was impressed with the customization options. Other than requesting decaf (I always get decaf), I tried to stick as close to the standard PSL as I could. I asked for a hot latte, “regular” milk, and no additional sugar. “Just make it yummy.”

The resultant latte was yummy, but only very subtly flavored. I didn’t detect any spiciness, and only the slightest hint of pumpkin-ness. It’s hard to describe the flavor of the drink, other than to say that the pumpkin spice somehow enhanced the milky-ness of the latte. It had more of a round nom-nom-nom flavor than a basic latte (sorry for using such technical terms).

It’s possible that my tastebuds are starting to get burnt out after all these PSLs and that’s why I didn’t taste much flavor in this latte. And barista error is always a possibility. But, still I wouldn’t say it was a bad experience, just that I wouldn’t want this to be my one pumpkin spice latte for the year. It was kind of boring.

Location: Dunkin Donuts in the Transportation Building

Price: under $2.50

Calories: 230

Room Temp Flavor: Drank it too fast to find out

Pumpkin Rating: un-carved pumpkin painted white