Starbucks offers pumpkin spice latte, pumpkin scones and pumpkin cream cheese muffins.
Brueggers offers pumpkin spice coffee, pumpkin bagels and pumpkin cream cheese.
Dunkin Donuts offers pumpkin crème brulee coffee, pumpkin cake, pumpkin crumb cake, pumpkin pie donuts, and pumpkin muffins.
While Downtown isn’t exactly near any pumpkin fields, Point Park students venturing into Downtown coffee shops and bakeries and beyond are finding the smell and taste of pumpkins in a wide assortments of drinks and dishes.
“It gets you excited for fall,” said Noelle Barnhart, a Point Park University student.
But these aren’t the only coffee shops that are involved with the craze. Crazy Mocha in Market Square sells pumpkin cookies, pound cake, biscotti, lattes and syrup; while Au Bon Pain on Sixth Avenue sells pumpkin coffee cake, muffins and pound cake, which is new to the collection for fall.
Oreos, America’s favorite cookie, has also been infected by the craze and now offers pumpkin Oreos.
Rita’s Italian Ice is selling pumpkin pie gelati, and coming soon to Fine Wine and Good Spirits is pumpkin spice vodka to spice up those Halloween parties, of course only for those 21 and up.
Many of these come from places that grow pumpkins. The top rated states are Illinois, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Michigan. “In 2012 there were 12.4 million pumpkins produced.” said Malinda Geisler content specialist of agriculture marketing resource center.
The Starbucks on Point Park’s campus offers the pumpkin spice latte starting at $3.95 and pumpkin scones and muffins for $2.62. The latte steams with a rich chocolate color and is topped off with whipped cream with orange/brown syrup drizzled over. The pumpkin spice latte has students obsessing over it.
“It screams fall,” said Brittany Dean, a fellow student at Point Park University. Starbucks began selling its pumpkin collection a month and a half ago. The most popular food items are the scones and muffins. The pumpkin scone is light brown with a thick covering of white icing with orange stripes drizzled about while the muffin is brown with a center filled with cream cheese.
“It’s seasonal and you don’t get to eat it all the time.” said Valetta Hosey, an employee at the coffee shop, referring to the pumpkin desserts.
Brueggers in Market Square also joins the pumpkin craze by selling pumpkin bagels, pumpkin flavored cream cheese and pumpkin spice coffee. The bagel is tan and spread all over with a light brown cream cheese, while the coffee is a mocha brown with the smell of pumpkin.
“The spice is addicting,” said Azia Thompson, an employee at Brueggers about the pumpkin spice coffee, which sells the most and starts at $1.99.
And finally Dunkin Donuts, which is also located in Market Square and Grant Street, sells pumpkin cake, pumpkin crumb cake, and pumpkin pie donuts starting at $3.79 along with pumpkin muffins which sell for $3.59. They began selling their fall desserts and beverages at the beginning of this month.
When it comes to the donuts they’re “so delicious,” an anonymous source said. The pumpkin crumb cake donut is brown with pumpkin filing in the middle and topped off with golden crumbs. The pumpkin coffee latte and ice coffee sells the most at Dunkin Donuts. The pumpkin crème brulee latte has a topping of white foam with orange syrup drizzled into a beautiful design. As fall is right around the corner and the leaves change colors and begins to fall, the weather gets a bit colder, and night time begins earlier, that’s when the addiction starts to kick in for people and they go crazy for the great pumpkin.
