As fall arrives, so does everyone’s favorite flavor of food and drinks, pumpkin spice. pumpkin spice is a well renowned flavor especially with big brands such as Starbucks, with their pumpkin Spice flavored drinks. Trader Joe’s also has a variety of pumpkin spice flavored food for the season.
One of Trader Joe’s great pumpkin spice foods is their Pumpkin and Spice Brioche Style Liège Waffles, these waffles offer a soft and sweet treat. It has 240 calories. One way that I recommend preparing it is putting it in the toaster just long enough for it to get warm but also keep its soft and chewy body. Another way is eating it the way it comes, it does not lose any flavor and keeps its soft fluffy texture. This food also delivers the flavor that you would just expect of Autumn and more. Ellie Garcia says, “They may have more of a fall taste.” She says that the “pillowy” would be more comforting, with “fall vibes”. Overall this food, although high in calories for its size, gives a delicious, sweet and soft food. I would give these waffles a solid 8/10.
Little Debbie’s Oatmeal Cream Pie is a classic dessert, I didn’t think that this would be good. I thought that the original cream would be better, but it was really good. This gave the always wanted classic oatmeal cookie with pumpkin spice filling. The filling did not overpower the cookie and I would say helped it. The pie has 170 calories per cookie, which is expected from a sweet treat like this. The treat is definitely one of the best pumpkin spice treats out there. Overall the oatmeal cream pie gets a 9/10.
Starbucks’ very own Pumpkin Spice Latte, to say the least this drink was below my expectations. It is most likely due to the hype it gets every year. The drink was not very good at all. I felt as though it lacked either the pumpkin or spice flavor and was disappointing. The smell of the drink was also very deceiving, it smelled like the spices but the taste is just not the same. The calories differ from size to size, a basic tall has 300 calories and a grande has 390 calories. I was hoping for something that would knock each other out of the park, however it did not deliver. The Pumpkin Spice Latte gets a 4/10.
Goldfish Dunkin’ Pumpkin Spice Grahams, a great snack. The fish are in the classic fish shape. The feeling of the fish however they don’t have the same cheesy taste. These fish are sweet with a salty after taste. The fish in there are also low in calories, one serving being 35 goldfish for 140 calories. I feel this differs from the average pumpkin spice snack, making this a lot more fun, giving this snack an 8/10.
The last food on this list is Nonni’s Bakery Pumpkin Spice Biscotti. These cookies are not too sweet on their own but with the frosting they have a sweet and salty taste making them a good choice for many drinks. The salty taste will balance out the drink if you have a sweet drink. The sweet taste makes it so if you have a bitter or somewhat salty drink, the frosting will back that flavor with the sweet taste that it delivers. Overall the biscotti alone would score a 5/10, but if it were paired with something, the score would go up dramatically because of its versatility with drink.
These foods were all fun to try and a lot of them differed widely. The iconic pumpkin spice flavor will continue to be a monumental seasonal flavor, adding a little spice to autumn. Remember that this ranking is my personal list and you may like these foods differently than I do. I recommend going out to embrace all of this fall season’s flavors for yourself.
