Starbucks describes the drink as follows: “Graham and sweet cream meet steamed milk and our signature espresso, then are finished off with a sprinkling of cinnamon graham crumbles for a less sweet perfect treat.” Of course, we headed to our nearest Starbucks stat and ordered a small – ahem, tall — latte because don’t nobody have time for all them extra calories (the Toasted Graham Latte is 300 calories per serving, compared to the Pumpkin Spice, which is 380).
[ Starbucks Is Updating the Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe and Everyone Is Freaking Out ]
Upon first sip, we had a “where’s the beef?” moment or, rather, “where’s the graham?” because we couldn’t really taste it. We were expecting the equivalent of liquid graham crackers and instead we got some sweet coffee with some graham crumbles on it. In fact, the only time we could taste any of the graham flavor was when some of the graham crumbles got into our mouth and even then it wasn’t anything groundbreaking. But maybe there’s something wrong with our taste buds?
We’re not saying the drink is bad – it’s delicious and we drank the whole thing, even though it’s 79 degrees in NYC. We’ll probably drink it again. Let’s just say we were expecting a lot more. Will it replace the PSL as the fall drink of choice? We’re thinking no, as you can generally taste the pumpkin in the Pumpkin Spice Latte.
To conclude: PSL today, PSL tomorrow, PSL forever.