Pumpkin Spice Coffee Drink Recipes

Pumpkin spice coffee is easy to make at home with freshly brewed coffee, pumpkin pie spice, a little milk or cream, and your preferred sweetener. Start with a medium-dark or dark roast so the coffee still comes through the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.

For one cup, brew 8 ounces of coffee, stir in a small pinch of pumpkin spice, add milk or cream to taste, and sweeten lightly with maple syrup or brown sugar. Taste before adding more spice, the goal is to still taste the coffee.

Pumpkin spice and coffee are one of those combinations that just feel like fall. Maybe it's the cinnamon and nutmeg, or maybe it's that first cool morning when a regular cup of coffee suddenly needs a little something extra.

The best part about making pumpkin spice coffee at home is that you can make it exactly the way you like it. Hot or iced, sweet or barely sweet, with real pumpkin or simply a little spice. There really aren't many rules.

We do have one strong opinion about it: don't lose the coffee. Pumpkin and spice should make a good cup of coffee more interesting, not cover it up.

Easy Pumpkin Spice Coffee Recipe

You don't need a complicated recipe or flavored coffee to make pumpkin spice coffee at home.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces freshly brewed coffee
• A small pinch of pumpkin pie spice
• Milk, cream, or your favorite dairy-free milk, to taste
• Maple syrup or brown sugar, to taste
• Cinnamon for the top, if you like

How to Make Pumpkin Spice Coffee

Brew your coffee and add a small pinch of pumpkin pie spice while the coffee is still hot. Stir well, then add milk or cream and a little maple syrup or brown sugar if you like your coffee sweet. Taste it before adding more spice.

This is important because cinnamon is lovely with coffee, but nutmeg and cloves can take over surprisingly quickly. You want those warm fall flavors in the cup, but you should still know you're drinking coffee.

You can also add a little pumpkin spice to your ground coffee before brewing. This allows the spices to brew along with the coffee rather than settling at the bottom of your cup.

If you want to make the spice blend yourself or turn it into a homemade syrup, we've put those instructions in our Pumpkin Spice for Coffee and Tea guide.

Pumpkin Spice Iced Coffee

Pumpkin spice may signal fall, but the weather doesn't always cooperate. There are plenty of afternoons when we want those wonderful fall flavors without a steaming hot drink.

For an easy pumpkin spice iced coffee, fill a tall glass with ice and add about one cup of chilled coffee or cold brew. Stir in one or two tablespoons of pumpkin spice syrup, then add a splash of milk, half-and-half, oat milk, or whatever you normally enjoy in your coffee.

Give it a good stir and taste it before adding anything else. If you want more pumpkin spice, add a little more syrup.

One of our favorite tricks is to make coffee ice cubes. Pour leftover brewed coffee into an ice cube tray and freeze it. As the cubes melt, they add more coffee instead of slowly watering down your drink.

Such a simple thing, but once you've done it, regular ice in iced coffee seems like a missed opportunity.

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Of course, we can't talk about pumpkin spice coffee without the pumpkin spice latte.

There's a reason people wait all year for it. Espresso or strong coffee, warm milk, real pumpkin, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, and a little sweetness make a creamy drink that really does taste like fall.

The coffee matters here more than people sometimes realize. Once you add milk, pumpkin, sweetness, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, a delicate coffee can disappear.

We want to taste the pumpkin and spices, but we also want to taste the coffee underneath them.

Rather than repeat the whole recipe here, we've given it a page of its own. Follow our Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe when you're ready to make one at home.

Pumpkin Coffee Smoothie

If you've never tried pumpkin and coffee in a smoothie, don't dismiss this one until you've tasted it.

A pumpkin coffee smoothie is cold, creamy, and completely different from a pumpkin spice latte. Chilled coffee is blended with pumpkin puree, banana, Greek yogurt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ice.

It's also a great use for coffee left over from the morning. Put it in the refrigerator instead of pouring it out, and you'll have chilled coffee ready when you want the smoothie.

You'll find the complete ingredients and directions in our Pumpkin Coffee Smoothie Recipe.

Choosing the Best Coffee for Pumpkin Spice Coffee

This is the part we care about most.

When you're adding pumpkin, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and something sweet, your coffee has quite a bit to compete with. A coffee without enough body can simply disappear.

For most pumpkin spice coffee drinks, we prefer a medium-dark or dark roast with enough character to stay present in the finished drink. Espresso is a natural choice for a pumpkin spice latte because its concentrated flavor stands up beautifully to milk and pumpkin.

Weaver's Espresso Blend Coffee is one of our favorite choices for pumpkin coffee drinks. It has the body and roast character we want when we're adding milk and spices, but you don't need an espresso machine to enjoy it. You can brew it as regular coffee, too.

Weaver's House Blend Coffee is another good choice when you want a balanced cup underneath the pumpkin and spice.

The goal isn't to make an overpoweringly strong drink. We simply don't want the coffee to disappear.

Pumpkin Spice or Real Pumpkin?

This confuses people because we talk about pumpkin spice as though pumpkin must be one of the ingredients. It isn't.

Pumpkin spice is usually a blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Pumpkin puree provides the actual pumpkin flavor and also adds body and texture to a drink.

If all you want is a little fall flavor in your morning coffee, you don't need to open a can of pumpkin. Add a small amount of pumpkin spice and see what you think.

If you're making a pumpkin spice latte or pumpkin coffee smoothie, real pumpkin puree becomes much more interesting because it gives you actual pumpkin flavor rather than just the spices associated with pumpkin pie.

One quick tip: buy pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin pie filling already contains sweeteners and spices, which gives you much less control over your drink.

How to Make Pumpkin Spice Coffee Taste Better

The secret is balance. If you can't taste the coffee, try brewing it a little stronger or choose a coffee with more body. If you want more actual pumpkin flavor, add a little more pumpkin puree rather than another spoonful of spice.

If your drink is too sweet, add coffee or milk. Don't try to correct too much sugar by adding more pumpkin spice, you'll probably end up with a drink that's both too sweet and too spicy.

And when you're making iced pumpkin coffee, start with completely chilled coffee. Pouring hot coffee directly over ice melts the ice almost immediately and dilutes the drink.

Most importantly, taste as you go. Coffee, pumpkin, milk, sweetness, and spice should work together. None of them needs to take over.

Pumpkin Spice Coffee Doesn't Have to Be a Latte

This might be our favorite thing about making pumpkin spice coffee at home. You don't have to turn everything into a latte.

Add a pinch of pumpkin spice to your morning coffee. Pour homemade pumpkin spice syrup into cold brew. Make an iced coffee on a warm afternoon. Blend chilled coffee with pumpkin into a smoothie.

If you love cinnamon, add a little more cinnamon. If you don't like very sweet coffee, use less maple syrup or brown sugar. If you want stronger coffee flavor, brew your coffee a little stronger. And if you want whipped cream on top, we're certainly not going to talk you out of it. There really aren't many rules here. The one thing we wouldn't compromise on is the coffee.

Pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, milk, and maple syrup can make a wonderful fall drink, but everything starts with what's underneath them. Start with good coffee, add the pumpkin and spice you love, and make it your own.

If pumpkin spice has you ready for the rest of fall and the holidays, you'll find more ideas in our 5 Holiday Coffee Drink Recipes.

And when pumpkin season eventually gives way to something a little stronger, there's always The Original Irish Coffee Recipe and Its History.