5 best pumpkin spice foods of the season

Courtesy: Starbucks

There’s a lot of hate out there for pumpkin spice and the approximate millions of packaged foods boasting its flavor. But the fact of the matter is that for fans of the cinnamon, nutmeg, and assorted spice blend, fall is a real boon time for a beloved flavor.

And yes: A lot of the food items are trash (hummus? really?). And yes: The fact stores use pumpkin spice, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin interchangeably is confusing at best and deceptive at worst.

In any case, in the interest of recognition of what is foundationally a good flavor, here are five of the best forms of pumpkin spice.

Pancake and Waffle Mix

Waffles work on multiple levels, which is to say, they work whether the pumpkin spice flavor is exclusively spice-no-pumpkin or whether pumpkin flavor sneaks in there too.

Pumpkin and pumpkin spice pancakes are, in fact, a trend in their own right, often featuring a pumpkin puree in addition to those tell-tale spices, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and clove. They’re quite tasty, benefiting from the fact that they are at least, in theory, less artificial than some of the other pumpkin spice products on the shelf.