A Pumpkin Spice Latte

Photo by: Michelle Meiklejohn

Today, my friends rejoiced in their pumpkin spice lattes. I am glad for them.

Sincerely.

You see, I'm a coffee lover, and anything that even smacks of coffee—with even one bean in it—rates in my book.

But, I’ve never even seen a pumpkin spice latte.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a latte. What’s a latte?

Google to the rescue! Make that Wikipedia, accessed by Google. (It’s the most authoritative source of information, for your information. Just kidding, of course!) It says a latte is espresso coffee with steamed milk.

Revelation: I have had a latte! (Although in Spain, we call it café con leche.)

You can call it a latte if you want.

Pumpkin spice latte. Hmmmmm . . . . I read the ingredients on social media. They go like this: milk and espresso coffee (So far, so good.), pumpkin spice flavored sauce (It consists of: sugar, condensed nonfat milk, sweetened condensed nonfat milk, annatto, natural and artificial flavors, caramel color, salt, and potassium sorbate.), whipped cream, pumpkin spice topping (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, sulfites). No pumpkin at all in a pumpkin spice latte. Just thought you might want to know.

I had to look up annatto. It’s a yellow-orange coloring, made from a South American fruit from the achiote tree. They used to use it for coloring cheddar cheese.

I’m sure that all that sweetness and all those artificial flavors, condensed milks and pumpkin spiced this and that have got to taste amazing when paired with coffee and steamed milk.

But you see, I’d have to drive five hours to reach the nearest Starbucks store. I've lived all my life without paying whatever you pay for a pumpkin spice latte. Even though it sounds delicious, after reading the ingredients list, I think I’ll pass—though if someone handed me one, I’d never ask questions for conscience sake. (Boy, is that stretching 1 Corinthians 10:25-28!)

I have an alternative in mind. How about I bake the pumpkins we grow organically in our garden, puré the flesh, and make some pumpkin pies with normal, natural ingredients, topping them with lightly sweetened whipped cream. On the side, I drink my home-brewed drip coffee with steamed milk (a.k.a. latte), and I enjoy those flavors in my own home, sitting beside a roaring fire in the wood stove?

No, it’s not the same.

But again, there’s more than one way to enjoy pumpkin, spices, and coffee.

Enjoy yours, however you like it!

Seriously.

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink,

or whatsoever ye do,

do all to the glory of God.

(1 Corinthians 10:31)