Pumpkin Flavored Coffee @ Home — A Review
What is it about fall that gets you excited? OR does fall get you down?
Today’s post is to either give you another reason to love fall or to help get you through colder weather and dimmer days. Whether you like fall or dislike fall, we are talking about pumpkin flavored coffees that will hopefully bring a nice cheer to your days and give you more energy to power through them!
The worker bees at Work In Progress are feeling fall-inspired, given the time of year and the slowly dipping temperature. Now that we are in November, the colors are changing and nights are growing longer. This means pumpkin flavored food and beverages are hitting the shelves (Hello, Pumpkin Spiced Lattes) and we just cannot wait to dive in! This year, instead of getting our fix from Starbucks, we decided to try pumpkin flavored coffees at home. These were not hard to source, as pumpkin spiced foods are EVERYWHERE! We got the following three from Amazon:
From left to right, we have:
- Dunkin’ Donuts Pumpkin Spice Flavored Ground Coffee by Dunkin’ Donuts
- Pumpkin Spice Flavored Ground Coffee by Starbucks
- Pumpkin Pie Flavoured Ground Coffee by Paramount Roaster Coffee
The goal is to judge these coffee grounds based on their flavor, smell and price and to recommend one to our readers. To be fair to all the coffee we tested, we poured them into identical-looking cups with their names labeled on the bottom and we did blind tasting. Since the beans came ground, we have no control over the grind size, but we like the convenience this provides to those who do not have grinders at home or simply do not want to be bothered. We kept brewing method the same across all three beans to avoid bias and here are the details:
- We used this French Press coffee maker,
- 3 tablespoons of coffee grounds,
- Used water just off boil,
- Brewed for 4 minutes,
- And waited for them to cool to a drinkable temperature (10 minutes) before tasting.
We chose French Press because it is a very simple equipment that anyone can get their hands on and it is easy to use and easy to clean up. There are not a whole lot of intricate details to this simple method of brewing so it is easy to keep things consistent between different cups.
Without further adieu, here are the tasting notes from our crew
Contestant One
“The smell is the most aromatic and smells the most like pumpkin spice. It has a hint of fruit but not overpowering”
“Could almost taste pumpkin in it. Or perhaps it’s the fruity note in this coffee that helps bring out the pumpkin flavor. I can taste a little bit of bitterness but overall, this coffee tastes great!”
Contestant Two
“The smell is sweet and nutty and very ‘earthy.’ This definitely smells less pumpkin-y and more sweet”
“This one tastes less fruity/pumpkin-y and although I couldn’t quite pinpoint what the flavor was but it tasted good. it was smooth and I couldn’t find anything I didn’t like about it”
Contestant Three
“This smells the least pumpkin-y to my nose. It smelled mostly like coffee, or perhaps because it was the lack of fruity smells that made the coffee smell stand out more”
“This tastes a little bitter, but nothing a dash of creamer couldn’t fix!”
After much scrutinizing, we proceeded to adding creamer to our coffee because that’s how we usually drink ours. Not surprisingly, after adding creamer, the bitterness and fruitiness got covered up. In a way it is nice because the coffee now does not taste bitter — looking at you, contestant three!
And this concludes the tasting part of this comparison. We agreed unanimously that Contestant One would be our top recommendation to anyone who enjoys pumpkin flavored food and brews coffee at home. This is a quick way to (pumpkin-) spice up your coffee by injecting some seasonal fun into your day to day routine. We would also consider re-purchase given the affordable price point and how easy it is to brew coffee with a French Press at home.
And now, the big reveal! The question you’ve been dying to find out: which one is which?
Drum roll, please…
Ta — Da!
Contestant One is Pumpkin Pie Flavoured Ground Coffee by Paramount Roaster Coffee
Contestant Two is Dunkin’ Donuts Pumpkin Spice Flavored Ground Coffee by Dunkin’ Donuts
Contestant Three is Pumpkin Spice Flavored Ground Coffee by Starbucks
We were surprised that we liked the Starbucks beans the least since Starbucks is such a giant coffee brand. We are also really surprised at the performance of Dunkin’ Donuts and Paramount Roaster Coffee beans, because they are less known in the coffee industry and yet their coffee beans tasted better! What a pleasant surprise.
Work In Progress is a space where two women explore the career in between careers.
