I'm not really a big cafe person. Don't get me wrong, I simply adore coffee, but I can't help thinking cafes, at least some of them, are a consumerist triviality. You pay for the experience, as with anything in our day and age, and while I'm more than happy to occasionally pay three or five times the price of coffee for a paper cup of goodness, more often than not, I prefer to brew my own.
Mostly, I save my cafe outings (and my money) for grabbing a cup with someone dear to me. Being as I am aware of the social aspect of going for some type of beverage with someone, I love checking out new cafes with someone else, especially as I know (or know people who know) nice places where the coffee is good.
Recently, though, I've succumbed to seasonal pressure, and have been craving a pumpkin spice latte immensely. I remember the first time I had one, there was a Second Cup cafe right near where I lived. I have a very good friend living in Canada, and at the time, she was going to these Second Cup places all the time. So naturally, I got curious, and it must've been around this time of year, since they were serving pumpkin spice lattes.
I felt so fancy with my seasonal beverage, and my colourful cup. I think I was about 18 at the time. And I don't think I've had it in years, but this time around, I just couldn't shake it. Then again, there's the part of me that looks at the price of one in a cafe (local places, I don't go to things like Starbucks. Ick.), and can't help thinking I can get a whole pack of ground coffee for that. Seems a bit much for an overly-sugary indulgence.
I hadn't intended to make my own. Seemed far too complex when I first checked out the recipe. But as I hate waste, I wanted to do something with the two pumpkins I bought for Halloween, so set about crafting a pumpkin and orange cake (yet to see how that turned out), which involved mashing the baked pumpkin into puree. At which point, my little caffeine-hungry antennae went ding-ding-ding.
I checked the recipe again, and lo and behold, turns out once you've procured pumpkin puree, it's actually a pretty easy recipe. So I set aside a bit of the mashed pumpkin. I then mixed it, over the stove, with milk, spices (cinnamon and cloves, was all I had in the house), and a bit of sugar. I brewed myself a nice cup of strong black coffee in my moka pot, and whipped up some cream.
Mix them together, and voila. My very own homemade pumpkin spice latte. I'm quite pleased.
Naturally, it doesn't taste like the ones you get at cafes, especially not chain cafes like Starbucks, who add a lot of sugary crap in their drinks as a rule. But it does taste like pumpkin and cinnamon, which I love, and is just unusual enough to make a change from my typical cup of strong black. Good enough for me.
