Homemade Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe

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This post is sponsored by Javy Coffee. However, all opinions expressed are my own.

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Cooking With Anadi

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We’re well into fall and what does fall mean? Pumpkin Spice time, of course, especially when it comes to coffee!

For the past year I’ve been loving making Starbucks drinks at home, from my favorite Cafe Mocha to a Starbucks Chocolate Cream Cold Brew, and even the Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino! At long last, the time has come for me to share the ultimate fall latte with this recipe! I’ve been waiting so long to share this, and now it’s the perfect time!

If you’re subscribed to me on YouTube, then you know that for the month of October, we’re celebrating the goodness of pumpkins! While I wasn’t a big pumpkin fan before now, but after doing this theme, I’ve really explored pumpkin in so many new ways! As I describe in more detail in my 5 top tips to explore your potential in the kitchen, Make Cooking Fun!, having a theme can motivate you to try new dishes surrounding that theme! If you want to celebrate pumpkins with me in October, then check out my other pumpkin recipes at the bottom of this post! If you love to pick up your staple latte in the morning but you’ve wanted to make your own for a long time, now it’s the time to check it off your bucket list and make it as part of your Live to Cook one-month challenge! Get my free guides by signing up to my email newsletter! Be sure to tag me on Instagram so I can see your Starbucks recreations!

To follow along as I make this delicious hot drink, be sure to watch the video! If you haven’t already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel, and hit the bell button so you receive notifications for when the recipe videos go live! I love sharing video recipes as a complement to the written recipes so you’re set up for success! Let’s get cooking!

What You’ll Love About Making This at Home!

• An essential fall drink made at home!
• Minimal ingredients
• Inexpensive - a grande is costing $6.72 CAD right now!
• Paired with a homemade pumpkin sauce and homemade pumpkin spice
• Easy recipe to follow!

Tips for the Coziest Fall Latte

• The syrup only needs to be warmed through until the sugar is dissolved and the condensed milk, vanilla, pumpkin and spices are mixed thoroughly.
• Use sweetened condensed milk to control the amount and type of sugar to add to your syrup.
• Make sure to stir the milk occasionally to ensure it does not burn while coming up to a simmer.
• Keep a close eye once the milk is simmering to ensure it does not boil over, remove from heat the moment you see steam and small bubbles on the edges.

Equipment Required

• Saucepan
• Whisk
• Coffee mug
• Frother
• Ladle
• Ramekin
• Non-stick pan
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Spatula

Ingredients

Time to see what we’ll need for our latte!! I’ll also go over the ingredients for our Perfect DIY Pumpkin Spice and for the Homemade Pumpkin Sauce. Be sure to check out the full Pumpkin Spice and Pumpkin Sauce recipes for more details and storage instructions!

Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD or press the “Jump to Recipe” button to get all ingredient quantities and to save the recipe instructions for later. You can also scale the recipe based on how many cups you want to make - this would be excellent to serve for family gatherings or just when you’ve got company who love these drinks!

For the Homemade Pumpkin Spice

• Cinnamon
• Ground ginger
• Ground nutmeg
• Ground cloves
• Allspice

For the Pumpkin Sauce

• Pumpkin puree: Ensure that you are using pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling. There is a big difference! Pumpkin puree is literally just that - pumpkin! On the other hand, pumpkin pie filling has sugar and other ingredients that won’t be good in our pumpkin sauce! If you’re really ambitious and want to keep this drink as natural as possible, you can make your own pumpkin puree!
• Condensed milk: I’m using sweetened condensed milk. If you use unsweetened, you’ll probably need to add more sugar. Again, if you really want to, you could make your own Sweetened Condensed Milk, and this recipe is lactose-free if you’re sensitive to lactose!
• Vanilla extract: Just a small amount to further bring out the flavors of the pumpkin puree and the sauce.
• Table sugar: Regular table sugar will work just fine.
• Water: As needed to dissolve the sugar for the syrup.
• Pumpkin spice: You can use a store-bought one if you want or make it yourself as I’ll describe.

For the Latte

• Milk: The standard recipe uses 2% milk, and this is what I would recommend for best results. You can use whatever milk you’d like! I’m using 1% milk because that’s all I have. You can use dairy-free milk too if you want, but keep in mind the taste and texture will not be the same.
• Whipped cream: Homemade Whipped Cream is a fun option, but you can use it from an aerosol can too if you’d like! That’s what I’ll be doing because canned whipped cream has that nice airiness and fluffiness from the gas.
• Instant Coffee or Liquid Coffee Concentrate: When I make these Starbucks drinks at home, I find it so easy to use Javy Coffee liquid coffee concentrate (click this link to save on your next order!). Thanks a ton Javy for sending me a bottle! You save the time from brewing coffee and you only need a tiny bit for a strong flavor! Don’t worry if you don’t have Javy, though! All you need to do is substitute with instant coffee or espresso powder.
• Pumpkin spice: Some more for garnish.
• Cinnamon stick: For garnish.

How to Make a Real Pumpkin Spice Latte Starbucks Style

For the Homemade Pumpkin Spice

To make this pumpkin spice recipe, all you need to do is mix all the spices together in a plate or shake the ingredients together in an airtight jar.

For the Pumpkin Sauce

In a saucepan, add the water and sugar and turn on the heat. Whisk well and warm the mixture until the sugar has completely dissolved.

Once dissolved, add the pumpkin puree, condensed milk, pumpkin spice and vanilla extract. Heat for 1-2 minutes and then turn off the heat.

Pour out the pumpkin syrup into a mason jar for storage in the refrigerator.

For the Latte

Combine 2 cups of milk and 2 tsp of Javy Coffee in a saucepan. Allow the mixture to warm through over the stove on medium heat.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and add 3-4 Tbsp of the pumpkin syrup. Then, use a blender, a whisk or a frother to froth up this mixture.

Top with whipped cream, pumpkin spice, and a cinnamon stick.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

Easy Swaps and Dairy-Free Options

Once you have the pumpkin sauce made, this latte is endlessly adaptable:

• Coffee: I use Javy coffee concentrate, but two shots of espresso — or 1 teaspoon of instant espresso dissolved in 2 tablespoons of hot water — or cold brew concentrate all work beautifully.
• Milk: any milk you like works here. Whole milk makes it extra rich and creamy, while oat, soy, or another non-dairy milk keeps it completely dairy-free.
• Pumpkin: all you need is a scoop of canned pumpkin puree (not pie filling); butternut squash or sweet potato puree swap in at the same ratio.
• Dairy-free topping: swap the whipped cream for coconut whipped cream.
• Your own pumpkin pie spice: skip the store-bought jar and shake together cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, ground cloves, and a pinch of allspice.

How to Store the Homemade Pumpkin Sauce

The pumpkin sauce is the make-ahead hero here. After you cook it down in a small saucepan, pour the syrup into a mason jar and keep it in the fridge. Then, whenever a craving hits, just stir a few tablespoons into warm milk with your coffee — a coffee-shop latte in minutes, no line required.

Other Amazing Hot Drink Recipes!

• Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha
• Decadent White Hot Chocolate
• S’mores Hot Chocolate
• Tim Horton’s French Vanilla Cappuccino
• Cafe Mocha

How Sweet This Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe Really Is

The sweetness here comes from two places, and it is worth knowing both before you pour. The sauce starts with 1/2 cup of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup of water, and then a 300 mL tin of sweetened condensed milk goes in on top of that. Per latte, the recipe card works out to 841 calories, 148 g of carbohydrates, 146 g of sugar, 21 g of fat, 20 g of protein and 299 mg of sodium. That makes this a treat rather than an everyday cup, and the easiest lever is the sauce itself: use 2 tablespoons per mug instead of 3 and you have taken a real bite out of the sugar without touching the pumpkin flavor.

If you would rather build it around your favorite sweetener, the table sugar is the part to change. Brown sugar, maple syrup and honey all dissolve into warm water the same way, and brown sugar in particular leans caramel, which suits pumpkin nicely. I make it with table sugar, so treat those as a starting point rather than a tested version. Maple syrup and honey both bring their own liquid, so the syrup comes out looser and you may want to keep it on the heat an extra minute.

The homemade pumpkin pie spice is the other thing you can dial in, and it costs nothing to make. Shake together 3 tablespoons of cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of nutmeg, 1 teaspoon of ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves and 1/8 teaspoon of allspice, and you have a jar that will outlast the season. The sauce takes 2 to 3 teaspoons of it. If you are working from a store-bought jar instead, start with a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, stir it in and taste before you add the rest, because commercial blends vary a lot in how much clove they carry.

Milk, Strong Coffee and the Right Mug

The full recipe makes two lattes, and almost all of that volume is milk: 2 cups of 2% milk warmed through on the stove. 2% is what I use and what I would recommend, but any milk you like works. Oat milk is the usual first choice if you are going dairy-free, and soy milk works too; both froth well enough to hold a proper head of foam, which is more than can be said for every non-dairy milk on the shelf.

Frothed milk is what separates a latte from pumpkin coffee, so do not skip it. Once the saucepan is off the heat and the pumpkin syrup has been stirred in, run a blender, a whisk or a handheld frother through the mixture until the surface turns pale and foamy. It takes under a minute and it is the difference between a drink that tastes homemade and one that tastes like a coffee shop.

You also need strong coffee, because 2 cups of milk will flatten anything weak. I use Javy liquid coffee concentrate, which is why there is no brewing step in the method at all. If you do not have it, the recipe card's own note says to substitute instant coffee or espresso powder, and two shots of espresso poured straight into the warm milk does the same job.