Rook Pumpkin Hot

It took a few extra weeks, but Rook did indeed come out with a hot pumpkin coffee. Once again, it is labeled as “pumpkin” not “pumpkin spice”. However, there are some mild notes of spice flavoring. The cold brew ran into a problem with the robustness of its taste. Too much sugar or creamer and the flavor of that pumpkin was all but gone. Here, however, it holds up much better. As a guy who drinks coffee black with no sugar, this coffee required me to break my own rule of no sweetener. It is just too bitter without it. I picked one up and headed next door to Holmdel Bagels for breakfast and after just two sips, there I was stealing a couple of packets to make this drinkable. I have since requested liquid sugar when ordering, and it has been much better.

Wawa Pumpkin Spice

Well, for the umpteenth year in a row, Wawa comes out on top as my favorite. It’s just the perfect blend of spices without being too much or ever tasting bitter. I don’t need milk or sugar to cut anything because it is perfect as is. Wawa may be the quintessential New Jersey convenience store and I may be biased, but this is as good a pumpkin spice coffee will ever be. Add to that the $1 any size coffee promotion they had for more than a month, and you could not go wrong.

Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Spice

Here we have the worst of the lot. It was a coffee that made me cringe. It is bad enough that Dunkin’s pumpkin spice comes pre-sweetened, but did it have to leave such a God-awful aftertaste? Either they use artificial sweetener or just do not have the right ratio. Either way, the coffee is disgusting both when drinking and after you have swallowed. First you are hit with overwhelming sweetness, bitterness kicks in, and then you are finished off with a funky aftertaste. Couldn’t we please just have had a plain coffee and added our own sugar? Dunkin continues to oppress the American people with its disgusting and ridiculously unhealthy non-donut breakfast foods  but now even its coffee has veered off course.