Actually, you will notice fall is upon you indoors first, then outdoors. And nothing heralds fall better than the release of the Pumpkin Spice Latté, PSL, as it is affectionately called.


But one drink from insert-major-drink-purveyor-here is enough for me to head to the kitchen and fabricate my own pumpkin spice latté. There's so much more flavour, so much more oomph, so much more spice to this that it makes some blustery rainy days actually bearable.


So when you're starting your day, and the sky is dark and dreary, reach for this belly soothing, heart warming beverage. Seriously, how can you be grumpy after a fabulous treat as this?


It's just a bit tedious the first time, but once you have the pumpkin spice paste and simple syrup in your pantry, it's easy as (pumpkin) pie!

Pumpkin Spice paste
2 cups pumpkin purée
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp Fuel with Flavour's pumpkin spice
1 cup water

In a saucepan, whisk all the ingredients together and simmer until smooth, around 20 minutes. Remove from heat, cool and strain into a jar.

Vanilla simple syrup
2 vanilla beans
1 cup water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Scrape the bean into the saucepan, add water and sugar and bring to a simmer until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat, add the vanilla extract, then cool completely.

Pumpkin Spice Latté
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp pumpkin spice syrup
1 tsp vanilla simple syrup
2 shots espresso
Whipped cream
Pumpkin spice, to garnish.

Directions:
1. Froth milk in frothing mug. Set aside.
2. Add pumpkin spice syrup and vanilla syrup to a cup.
3. Pull a double espresso shot into the same cup, then stir to combine.
4. Add the frothed milk to the cup.
5. Top with a pinch of pumpkin spice.