Ariane de Gennaro
Fall drinks are a crucial part of the beloved season. I’m not a sweet drinks person, and I don’t find myself falling for seasonal-drink shenanigans all that often. But Fall drinks pose the only exception. The go to, of course, is the Pumpkin Spice Latte. The PSL is polarizing. Some people wait all year for it, some people gag at the thought. The whole thing seems like a bit of a lie: there isn’t really pumpkin. But, personally I am very fond of spices in my coffee. So, I guess I’m a “pumpkin” spice girl?
So, I set out to find my favorite New Haven coffee spots, and what better time to do so than in the midst of PSL season?!
I went to six places and tried eight different iced, espresso-based, fall themed drinks. In each review, I discuss the overall vibe/pricing of the place, but the final grade is mostly a reflection of the fall drink itself. Let’s get started.
First up:
MOTW Coffee & Pastries
296 Crown St.
Vibe: MOTW Pastries and Coffee sits right past Yale’s miniscule version of Frat Row, next to Club Pilates on Crown Street. The interior is trying to accomplish many things: there’s a mural, there are plants and according to a sign beside their board game shelf, they do baby showers. The repetitive LoFi music makes me feel like I’m in a cafe simulation, but also, admittedly, it was nice to have when doing my work.
The Menu/The Order: MOTW doesn’t offer a pumpkin spice latte. Yeah, I know: ABSURDITY! They have the most diverse coffee flavoring menu I have seen in New Haven, yet no PSL??! Madness. So, I tried their two featured fall specials: The Fall Latte and the Biscoff Pumpkin Pie.
The Fall Latte: a “cozy blend” — verbatim — of sweetened condensed milk, cardamom and date cold foam. I ordered mine iced and with oat milk. The drink came in a reasonable three minutes, and I immediately brought it to my table. I was skeptical of the whole “date cold foam” situation. It is likely that all of MOTW thought strangely of me, for I kept bending my head down and licking the mysterious cold foam. I couldn’t quite get a grip on it: it was sugary-sweet, that’s for sure, but lacking in dates. It also tasted like butter. The cardamom condensed milk base had slight undertones of condensed milk and absolutely no hint of cardamom. Disappointment.
Biscoff Pumpkin Pie: A “creamy fusion” of Biscoff and pumpkin pie syrup. The color of this one is a lot darker than the Fall Latte, but don’t be fooled: this is not because of the coffee content, but rather the pounds of Biscoff they slather into that “coffee” of yours. This coffee tastes nothing like pumpkin pie and everything like a spoonful of Biscoff. Don’t get me wrong, I am a Biscoff lover. But I like to taste my coffee. I didn’t really get to do that at MOTW.
Conclusion: Two bevs later, and I could not provide one word on the quality or taste of the actual coffee. That being said, if you’re a sweet drink person, this is the place for you. Nothing I tried was bad — but at 9 a.m., I don’t want a biscoff cookie in the form of an iced liquid. Most importantly, their fall drinks are deceiving. I did not taste any cardamom or pumpkin in their two fall drinks. This is a fall drink article. That was not good for their grade.
Grade: C+. This grade would probably be a whole letter higher if it weren’t for the whole lack-of-fall-flavor situation, but this is reality. Would I return to MOTW? Most definitely. Would I order a fall drink? Absolutely not.
Fepo Cafe
195 Church St.
Vibe: I spotted this cafe while trekking to Union Station. Fepo is on the corner of Elm and Church, right past the New Haven Green. It’s bright, it’s spacious, and it sort of feels like you’re in a The Sims 4 based cafe. Fepo has coffee by La Colombe — and there is no shortage of them showing it. Signs and products boasting the name fill the store. But, if we’re being honest, I’m a La Colombe superfan, so I was excited.
The Menu/The Order: There was no specialized fall drink. What a shame. And they charge +1.25 for oat milk. Pain. I did what I was forced to: I ordered an iced oat latte customized with pumpkin spice flavoring. The total? $8. I know my habitual oat milk costs me more, but +1.25 for it felt wrong. It’s okay. I’ll get over it. But the prices were definitely not the highlight of Fepo.
The *customized* PSL: Sometimes a sweet coffee drink can just taste, well, sweet. I’m not a fan. I want distinctions. I want to taste that processed fake vanilla MONIN syrup. I want my tastebuds to know I ordered a pumpkin spiced flavored coffee, not a cost-an-extra-dollar-and- tastes-like-a-box-of-Dominos-sugar latte. Fepo served me well in this regard. The first sip was incredibly smooth, and the bitter espresso paired wonderfully with the burst of cinnamony-nutmegy-clovey deliciousness. I wasn’t overwhelmed with the sweetness, but it was still there, adding to the flavor profile.
Conclusion: I’m a Fepo Fan, although maybe my bank account would wish otherwise. I would definitely drink this latte again.
Grade: B. Honestly, it just didn’t feel right to give an A to a coffee that cost as much as an overpriced GHeav bacon, egg and cheese. La Colombe based cafes consistently have solid espresso, and Fepo was no exception. If I’m being mega-critical, the coffee was a bit too watery. Also I am still slightly disappointed that I had to create my own fall drink.
G Cafe (Chapel)
1177 Chapel St.
Vibe: This corner cafe has no shortage of pastries and boasts a bread wall, featuring over 10 bread varieties. It seems to be a favorite of those in the David Geffen School of Drama, as it’s right around the corner. G Cafe’s interior is pleasant: the blue tiling along the counter makes it feel somewhat familiar, and a tinier cafe is always a cozier cafe. But I do have a bone to pick with G Cafe: their table and chair situation is atrocious. The tables are tiny knee-high disks and the chairs are backless gum-drop-shaped pieces of wood. To do work at G Cafe you must utilize your naturally built in lap-desk.
The Menu/The Order: If you get over the lap-desk situation, you will appreciate G Cafe’s prices. I think these are the best prices I’ve seen in New Haven for quality, espresso based coffee — so yeah, not including Common Grounds. A regular latte is $3.95, which I’m sure climbs up to the 5-6 range with modifications. But walking two blocks down Chapel from Atticus could save you two dollars. Just saying. The Fall specials menu consists of five drinks, but only one was espresso based, so I knew what I had to do. One Iced Caramelized Pumpkin with oat milk please! They did not specify “latte” on the menu, so I will continue to refer to this drink as if it is an entire pumpkin.
The Caramelized Pumpkin: This featured drink has milk, espresso, pumpkin pie syrup and caramel sauce. And once again I am disappointed to report I did not taste any pumpkin. I could have ordered a caramel iced latte and been tasting the same drink. Was it a good quality iced latte? Yes, yes it was. The espresso was slightly more acidic than prior tastings, but frankly, not too distinguishable once in latte form.
Conclusion: The prices are good. The espresso is good. The seating is terrible. Most importantly, the pumpkin drink had no pumpkin taste. Unfortunately, once again, this will not be good for the grade.
Grade: C+. This place had potential to succeed but, no pumpkin taste, no good grade. This seems to be a pattern. Let’s see who can break it.
Koffee?
104 Audubon St.
Vibe: Tucked away on Audubon Street, Koffee? is a quintessential New England local coffee shop. The furniture and decor looks like it came from a variety of thrift stores. There are yellow polka-dotted arm chairs, red-striped curtains, peach colored rolling chairs and two human-sized teddy bears. It is perfectly incohesive. The music ranges from jazz to indie to Queen B’s greatest hits. And of all the New Haven cafes I’ve been to, Koffee? has the most archetypical baristas.
The Menu/The Order: They have four fall drink specials. There’s the “Can You Fig It”, a spiced fig latte, the “Chaider”, apple cider with chai concentrate, the “Cafe Miel” — ok this one isn’t a creative name — and the “Real Pumpkin Spice Latte”. The prices were fine — would I be happier if I didn’t have to pay $6.50 for an iced PSL? Yes. But I will say the prices for unflavored “normal” coffees were not horrendous. The Real Pumpkin Spice Latte was the only one I could do iced and that was espresso based, plus I was very intrigued by the “realness” of the PSL. I had been let down before. I had high hopes for this.
The PSL: Guys… I tasted the pumpkin. I don’t think they’re liars at Koffee?. Upon taking my first sip I was immediately transported to my Nana’s house during Thanksgiving: the scent of open canned pumpkin and the taste of her famous pumpkin pie. I know that was a lot of the word “pumpkin”, but I need to emphasize that I COULD TASTE REAL PUMPKIN IN THIS COFFEE!! Not even just pumpkin spice… real, pumpkin-purée type-beat-pumpkin. Aside from my excitement, the coffee itself was great, and harmonized with the REAL pumpkin better than I would have expected. My one note is I like when my oat milk iced lattes are a bit creamier, but that’s getting into the nitty-gritty.
Conclusion: I think this is the first fall drink I have had in my life where I tasted real pumpkin, not just the associated spices. I really suggest you go get this drink if you’re a pumpkin pie fan.
Grade: A. There is no other answer for this. They delivered. I must give them their rightful A.
Fussy Coffee
290 Winchester Ave
The Vibe: Fussy is a teleporter from New Haven to a Los Angeles brunch spot. It was a solid 20 minute walk from campus, but it was a very pleasant one, so I don’t have complaints there. It made a morning coffee — plus a bite to eat — all the more satisfying and pleasant. The cafe itself has the most extensive food menu of any of these places. On the spectrum from coffee shop to cafe to restaurant, it’s veering towards restaurant. From the outside it’s quite unassuming: I only realized after this trip that I had actually run past Fussy many-a-time before. Inside, aside from a wooden service counter, nearly everything is white, with sparse paintings and bubbly-shaped light fixtures.
The Menu/The Order: Their seasonal drinks were an Orange Cardamom Coffee Soda, a PSL — ft. maple syrup — a Maple Coffee Milk Tea, a Caramel Apple — cider — a Hot Honey Cortado and a Vanilla Spiced Cold Foam. Fussy wins in terms of most seasonal drinks. Yay Fussy!! Congrats!! Unfortunately the Hot Honey Cortado was unavailable iced, so I wasn’t able to try this funkiness. I will be back for it. I got the PSL and the Vanilla Spiced Cold Foam, both iced and with oat milk, of course. The prices weren’t pretty, but getting a flavored iced latte is never cheap anymore. They were each about $6.50.
The PSL: I was disappointed after my first sip of Fussy’s PSL. I was coming off the high of the nostalgic pumpkin pie flavoring from Koffee? and my expectations were too specific. The Fussy PSL was probably the least sweet PSL I’ve ever encountered. But the spice blend? Fantastic. It had ginger, cardamom, nutmeg and of course, cinnamon. I didn’t taste any pumpkin, which is always unfortunate. But they did mostly advertise the drink in terms of spice, not some “real pure pumpkin” situation. By the end, I was really sad to see the last sips of it disappear. The unsweet spiced iced coffee was a wonderful change up to a classic.
Vanilla Spiced Cold Foam: This was good, but not exciting. The spice didn’t really add much to the drink overall — you could taste it just slightly in the foam. Even before I mixed the cold foam in, the drink was very milky, so you can only imagine how non-coffee flavored it became once I mixed the spiced cold foam in. I wanted more coffee flavor. And more spice. Can you tell I like spice?
Conclusion: The lack of pumpkin was once again disappointing, but the spice blend and barely sweet nature of the Fussy PSL — mostly — made up for it. I would have liked a bit more of that theoretical maple syrup, too. The Vanilla Spiced Cold Foam was fine. I wouldn’t get it again, but I don’t have beef with it. I was just bored. If you’re the type of person who likes to drink coffee that doesn’t actually taste like coffee, then it might be the drink for you.
Grade: B+. New in some ways, boring in others. I also am a fan of the interior and the baristas here, so perhaps there’s a little grade inflation. I will be back, although not for a cold foam coffee.
I would happily go back to all five of these places. Places that I didn’t grade as high, like MOTW or G Cafe, were graded poorly simply because of their inability to deliver in the seasonal drink category. They actually both have good coffee and I will be buying from them again. But I would not happily order Fall drinks from them. Let’s look at the overall rankings:
- Koffee (A)
- Fussy Coffee (B+)
- Fepo Cafe (B)
- G Cafe – Chapel (C+)
- MOTW (C+)
I think this brings us to the end. It was a lovely, jittery time, and now I will only be drinking dining hall Sumatra for the next 10 business days, as apparently adding flavor to your coffee makes a large dent in your bank account. Anything for a PSL, though.