Easy and Healthy Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe

Do you love a pumpkin spice latte? Do you also want to stick to dietary restrictions? Sweetened or unsweetened, with dairy or without, hot or cold, decaf or regular– now you can make your own version of this favorite fall treat to suit your taste and your dietary needs. Did I mention how easy it is? You might end up having this healthy pumpkin spice latte every day. I won’t tell if you don’t…

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Not so long ago, there was no “pumpkin spice latte”. No pumpkin spice anything, really, even though pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin cookies were all around and loved by many. Certainly, nobody knew what a PSL was.

Needless to say, our culture has changed. Pumpkin spice lattes are a staple. Love them or hate them, they entrenched themselves. As did a lot of other pumpkin spice items! In my opinion, a few should meet a slow and unlamented demise, like pumpkin spice salsa.

Why not just buy a PSL?

Well, the commercial pumpkin spice latte is quite expensive. That is one good reason.

Healthwise, ingredients vary, but they aren’t the absolute worst indulgence ever. The list of ingredients for the Starbucks version isn’t great, but it isn’t the scariest treat out there, either.

Then again, “natural flavors” aren’t always natural at all– that is an undefined term that doesn’t mean what we think it means. Carageenan isn’t great for us, and a few other items on that list don’t exist in my kitchen. Plus 50 grams of sugar!

Bottom line– for a lot of people, the expense and dietary deviation of an occasional PSL might not be catastrophic.

Then again, maybe you will think twice. They are pricey, and maybe you really want (or need) to stick to your dietary goals. Whether GAPS, sugar free, dairy free, keto, Whole 30, AIP, or something else, you may be looking for a more healthy pumpkin spice latte.

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Here is another option!

You can tweak it all sorts of ways to bring it in line with your goals and preferences. I will list variations after the recipe, so keep reading!

Also, this is a very easy recipe. It is hardly a recipe! You also won’t need special equipment, though you could use something like a blender or milk frother if you want.

You will need:

• coffee or coffee substitute
• pumpkin pie spice or individual spices like cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves
• dairy or a dairy substitute, unless you want black coffee
• sweetener if you want it– you don’t have to use any at all
• a way to make coffee– a drip coffee maker or French press are ideal

How to Make a Healthy Pumpkin Spice Latte

Prepare your coffee for brewing however you normally do it. I used to use a drip coffee machine, and that worked fine. When I switched to a stainless steel French press (to reduce toxins), it was still just as easy. If you usually do pour over coffee, do that.

Add the spices to your coffee grounds. Depending on how strong you like your coffee and how much milk you want, you may use more or less coffee. I like it fairly strong, and don’t usually use much milk. 2 tablespoons of coffee works pretty well if you plan on about 2 tablespoons of milk; I usually use half and half.

I like 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice for 2 cups of coffee. You can use less if you want a subtle flavor, or more if you want it very strong or if you plan to use a lot of milk. It may take some fiddling to figure out how you like it best!

Once the coffee is brewed, you can add your dairy choice. I usually use half and half, and it doesn’t need to be heated. That would also be true if you use cultured cream, egg yolk, or cream.

If you opt for milk or a milk substitute, you will probably use a little more, and you may want to warm it gently on the stove first.

After adding your dairy, you can enjoy your latte as is, or gussy it up. Sweeten it if you like! Also, you can either whisk it vigorously by hand, whiz the whole thing into a froth in a blender, or use a milk frother.

So easy you can have a healthy pumpkin spice latte every day if you want to!

But where is the pumpkin?!

There isn’t any!

You see, this is an easy recipe. Nothing extra.

Also, pumpkin tends to not blend as well as it ought to. Homemade pumpkin spice latte recipes generally call for pumpkin. The result is usually a tasty drink with tiny bits of pumpkin that float about, sink to the bottom, and make the whole thing a little off-putting.

Think about it– a pumpkin spice latte gets its flavor from the pumpkin-associated spices. Dairy, coffee, and sweetness add most of the rest of the flavor. What we love about pumpkin treats tends to be the sweetness and the spices! Pumpkin on its own is pretty bland.

However, you can add some pumpkin if you really want to. Try a tablespoon or two and use a blender to try to get it smooth. Alternatively, you could strain it through a fine sieve to get rid of any pumpkin specks.

A word about not sweetening your pumpkin spice latte

You absolutely can sweeten it if you want! Make this the way you want!

If you are used to normal, store bought lattes or other treats, unsweetened and even less-sweetened versions may fail to live up to your expectations. In that case, you might enjoy it more with a little sweetener at first, then gradually wean yourself down. Honey would be a good way to do this, as it is very sweet and you will need less. There are even some benefits to honey, unlike most sweeteners!

Or go cold turkey– you will adjust, and maybe sooner than you fear. I find this to be very satisfying! Save the sweetness for something else…

As with many things in life, training is crucial. Many of us start out trained to the sweetness of conventional foods. Good news! You can retrain your taste!

My little story about retraining my own taste

As an example, I used to love to buy a pumpkin spice latte once or twice each fall. I would plan it, look forward to it, and enjoy the indulgence to the hilt. After I began improving my diet, I had no idea at first how drastically my taste had changed!

One lovely but chilly fall day, I decided to go ahead and spring for a PSL at a local shop while I was doing errands. Expecting a scintillating treat, imagine my bitter disappointment when the first delectable sip was followed by… sickly sweet disgust. Not only was the latte hideously sweet, but it tasted wrong. Kind of like cardboard.

A few years later, I convinced myself that this earlier latte fail was a fluke. They somehow made it wrong, or the batch of syrup was not up to snuff, or I was off kilter that day. I shelled out for another one. It was even worse! I could hardly finish it. My taste had changed too much!

Disappointing as these moments were, they are also encouraging. I like real foods better now! And sweets don’t entice me as irresistably as they used to. Not only is it much easier to stick to goals when the temptation to cheat loses some (or all!) appeal, but I genuinely prefer better treats.

There is a lesson here beyond food and dietary and health goals. We train ourselves in many ways every day! Read good books! Listen to good music! Watch good movies! Spend time with good people! You get the idea– not only is there some truth in “you are what you eat”, but we become what we keep doing.

Adapting your Healthy Pumpkin Spice Latte

Coffee

While I usually use regular coffee, there are alternatives:

• decaf coffee
• espresso
• dandelion root
• chicory coffee

I would not recommend instant coffee, because the technique won’t work. For GAPS people, the detoxifying dandelion would be and excellent choice; otherwise, weak coffee is an option on advanced GAPS.

Spices

As far as the spices go, any pumpkin spice blend will work fine! I really like the Trader Joe’s version, but any grocery store or gourmet version will be good. If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, you can use some cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. Maybe add a little allspice or cardamom, but those aren’t necessary.

Dairy

You have options with the dairy portion. You can just have the coffee black if you prefer, or try:

• regular milk– raw is great!
• cream
• half and half
• any alternative milk you usually like in coffee– coconut, oat, almond, etc.
• a commercial creamer you like that fits your diet
• cultured cream– this is a GAPS friendly alternative that will require enthusiastic mixing– I used an immersion blender and added honey because it was, understandably, rather sour
• an egg yolk blended vigorously into the coffee– I whiz one egg yolk into hot coffee with an immersion blender for a creamy, slightly foamy not-latte– GAPS friendly and dairy free

Sweetener

You don’t have to add any sweetener at all! I hardly ever use any, and I really like it that way. The exception is in a latte made with cultured cream; in my opinion, it is sour enough to warrant a bit of honey! If you would like to sweeten your latte, consult your goals and consider:

• honey (the only GAPS option I have tried, though date syrup might work)
• maple syrup
• sugar
• any sugar substitute you typically enjoy in coffee

There you have the world’s easiest, and possibly most healthful, way to satisfy your pumpkin spice latte craving! Have one with a slice of pumpkin bread!