Fall is in the air. Maybe it’s the chillier weather or the changing colors of the leaves. Or maybe it is the introduction of pumpkin spice…everywhere. Everyone knows the iconic pumpkin spice latte, but unless you are obsessed with pumpkin spice, I’m willing to bet you don’t know all of the other products in the grocery store that embrace the pumpkin spice.
What inspired this article is my roommate, Monica. She is the biggest pumpkin spice fan I’ve ever met. I was going through our dorm snacks and uncovered pumpkin spice Oreos, hot chocolate, and Frosted Mini Wheats—that was just the beginning. That’s how much Monica loves pumpkin spice.
Then it hit me: I’m going to do a taste test to see which of these pumpkin spice goodies are actually good. No taste test is valid with only one taster, so I included my roommate, Monica, and a new friend I met named Abby.
I enjoy a good pumpkin flavor, but I’m not even close to Monica’s level of pumpkin love. Abby is an avid drinker of the pumpkin spice latte, but had no experience in the flavor of the other goods. We all sat down on the floor in the middle of my dorm, and the tasting began. For every product, we gave it a score from 1-10 with 10 being to-die-for delicious and 1 for not so much. We then averaged each of our three scores for the definitive ranking.
Creative Snack Co. Pumpkin Spice Yogurt Covered Pretzels
Score: 7.33
Personally, I adored these pretzels. They are sweet with just the right amount of pumpkin spiciness and very addictive. I liked them most when they were slightly chilled in the fridge. Unfortunately, my fellow tasters lowered the score, saying the pretzels were too sweet and overall just not a good pumpkin idea.
Nestle Toll House Pumpkin Spice Morsels
Score: 3.67
This was a unanimous no. We all agreed that they were just too spicy and blatantly artificial. But then we put them in coffee and decided they have potential if paired with a pumpkin-friendly food or beverage.
Pumpkin Spice Rolls
Score: 6.67
The votes were split on this one. We all agreed on the fakeness of this product. There was no chance it contained any real pumpkin, and it was smothered in imitation cream. But we did diverge on whether it was the good kind of artificial or the bad kind. I would not eat them for pleasure, but Monica and Abby thought they had the same appeal as the old-fashioned Twinkie.
Spiced Pumpkin Pie Clif Bar
Score: 4.33
Taste-wise, this was awful. The first three seconds, you think “hey, this is good,” but the aftertaste is extremely weird. But then we looked at it less as a snack and more as an energy bar. Due to the amount of protein and health value, we brought the score up considering it is a solid Clif flavor when compared to other Clif bar flavors.
Pumpkin Spice Oreos
Score: 7.33
We thoroughly enjoyed these. They were a great snack and definitely delivered a good fall product. The only thing is if you love pumpkin spice for the strength of the pumpkin flavor then you might be disappointed with these. The pumpkin was very subtle.
Pumpkin Spice Life Cereal
Score: 7
It’s a good cereal, but that’s because Life cereal is quite yummy to begin with. To me, it tasted like classic cinnamon Life. Then Monica made the comment that it has a little spice, but it is missing the pumpkin.
Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini Wheats
Score: 8
We all liked this variation. Monica had a full bowl for breakfast, and she said that the cereal would turn the milk pumpkin-flavored after you’re done with the cereal. If this sounds good to you, then go for it!
The Takeaway
Generally, the cereals and sweet snacks were pretty good, but the Clif bars and baking chips should probably be avoided.
To give you some context, after tasting the snacks we drank some pumpkin spice coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. We averaged out our drink scores and got a 9. Even though the snacks were good and fun to try, pumpkin spice is still at its best when it is in a hot fall beverage.