5 best pumpkin spice foods of the season

Credit: Pillsbury

Liqueur

The cultural urtext* of pumpkin spice products is the pumpkin spice latte. As such, foodstuffs that resemble the latte in form or spirit are often the most successful. Hence, pumpkin spice creamer — that which you might use to craft a homemade PSL — is a great pumpkin spice product.

Better yet is the boozy creamer, more commonly known as a cream liqueur. The best known, mostly because they make essentially one other product, is the Fulton’s Harvest Pumpkin Pie cream liqueur, a Bailey’s-esque delight that will warm the heart of even the most spiteful pumpkin spice hater. (Kahlua also makes a pumpkin spice liqueur, but that is, of course, rum and coffee-based, not cream.)

As the pumpkin pie name might suggest, actual pumpkin flavor compliments those foundational fall spices. Add it to coffee or hot chocolate — or sip it straight over ice. Either way, a delightful manifestation of the flavor.

*Starbucks PSL is obviously not literally the first ever use of pumpkin spice flavoring, but it’s the capitalist gangbuster that every brand producing pumpkin spice flavored products is trying to recreate.

Cinnamon Rolls

A corollary to the “products similar to the PSL” rule is the “foods already involving cinnamon” rule. Like, for example, the cinnamon roll. It’s but a hop, skip and a pivot from a delicious cinnamon roll to a similarly doughy roll with cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. As such, this is a pumpkin spice product that is easy to co-sign.