Living in Los Angeles, few things truly invoke the feeling of Autumn. The palms trees that frame the avenues, swaying ever so violently in the Santa Ana winds, do not burn with orange and gold leaves. Even at night, temperatures rarely dip below sixty degrees. So, in addition to strident insistence on wearing sweaters because it is October, guys, the thing that signals the beginning of Fall in the modern era is ... the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte.
When I managed a restaurant at the base of an office building in downtown LA, we would get requests frequently for our version of the beverage, and so I (a former Starbucks barista myself) developed a Pumpkin spice syrup for our bar, that I will happily share with you.
The cinnamon/pumpkin/condensed milk combo adds creamy richness and warmth to whatever you add this syrup to-- coffee, latte, hot chocolate, a little brandy and creme de cocao shaken over ice...
If you don't want to use the sweetened condensed milk, then just increase the brown sugar to 1 1/2 cups.
Note on spices: Use the best, freshest cinnamon you can get. It makes a huge difference. When you smell the cinnamon in the jar, it should really give you the impression of those red-hot candies you ate as a kid. If it smells vaguely like cardboard, your syrup is going to taste, well, vaguely like cardboard…. the cinnamon does the heavy lifting here. So don't wuss out and use the cheap stuff.
—SideworkEnds
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