Making A Healthier Pumpkin Spice Latte

Autumn—often listed as many people’s favorite season—it’s warm days and cool nights, apple picking, colorful leaves on trees, crunchy walks, and cozy sweater weather. Beyond that, it’s pumpkin spice everything season!

While these fall flavors can certainly be enjoyed year round, the taste of clove, nutmeg, cinnamon spice, and pumpkin goodness seem to define autumn, almost as if it’s an entry found in the dictionary. People are truly passionate about pumpkin.

Pumpkin Spice Excitement

Whether it’s your favorite season or you’re more the summer/surfing/long days in the sun type, you probably can’t miss the flood of “fall flavor” hitting the scene this time of year. Whether you’re visiting popular cafes or simply scrolling your social feeds—pumpkin spice is everywhere.

The popularity of this flavor craze has made companies like Starbucks bring their strictly-seasonal PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte) back to their offerings sooner than “officially autumn” every year.

This drink generates tens of millions of dollars in sales some seasons and outsells their other seasonally offered beverages. The fall flavor may draw people in by the droves, but do they really know what ingredients they’re drinking?

Unhealthy Ingredients

Even after removing artificial coloring back in 2015, beyond the caffeine and mega hit of calories, there’s a massive amount of sugar in this shop’s signature drink. Not to mention Starbucks lists potassium sorbate twice in their beverage ingredients. That’s an odorless, tasteless, synthetically produced chemical additive. One we stay far away from at Terra Powders!

Pumpkin itself is healthy. So are natural spices of course—like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove, and cardamom—but the dessert-like drinks featured at mega chain cafes are all too often about the sugar and making you crave more.

People may not choose to wake up and slam down a bowl full of candy or a giant piece of cake for breakfast, yet somehow seem to reason that simply drinking a flavored coffee every morning is deemed alright. Why would you knowingly put high amounts of sugar and synthetically produced chemicals in your body though? That doesn’t help it be healthy or run optionally.

A Healthier Indulgence

If you love the fall season and feel like it just wouldn't be complete without getting to sip on the “taste of autumn” as you admire the colorful leaves and cool air, we’ve got great news! You can have the taste of pumpkin spice without all the crazy chemical preservatives, tremendous amounts of sugar, and wasted calorie intake!

Here’s some clean food picks that we love and totally feel have the tastes of the season:

First of all, our very own Golden Cocoa Pumpkin Spice Latte recipe. While this delight uses our Golden Cocoa powder, you can sub in any clean organic cocoa you wish, (just be sure to add extra spices if you do). The recipe is full of real, rich flavors of fall, without a single bit of corn syrup or artificial anything. Just 100% natural pumpkin spice goodness! (Oh, and there’s a clean chocolate sauce you’ll love topping with.)

Next up, Living Intentions has some crave worthy, superfood snacks to munch that are totally full of the taste of autumn. Try the Cinnamon Twist Popcorn and the Malted Maple Superfood Nut Blend. They’re great foods for enjoying around the campfire.

Be sure to also grab a bag or two of Bare Snacks apple chips. They're thin sliced organic apples, baked to absolute perfection which caramelizes their natural sweetness with no added sugar. Go with the cinnamon version to keep up with the full seasonal theme snacking.

You can also find the natural flavors of fall in Primal Kitchen’s Chai Tea Collagen Peptide drink mix. Super paleo and keto friendly, dairy free yet naturally creamy and delicious, it’s full of spices that include cardamom, ginger root, nutmeg, clove, and real vanilla.

Last, but definitely not least in our list of top fall flavors to not miss is Jim’s Organic Hazelnut Coffee. While far too many coffee flavors are artificially achieved, not Jim’s! It’s 100% natural—nutty, toasted, a bit earthy. So good, especially sipped by the fireplace first thing in the morning.

Whatever your favorites of the fall season are, have a healthy autumn!