As the leaves begin to fall and the air begins to cool, students, faculty, and the general public look to our nearby coffee shops for new fall flavours. There are numerous possibilities available on campus. 

Starbucks’ new flavors are pumpkin spice and apple crisp. These flavours can be added to any drink from their lattes, chai as well as cold brews. They even have a deal for Starbucks members and app users! On Thursdays, afternoon if you buy one fall drink you can get one free! Be sure to get there right at twelve because the line gets long quickly. I got to the Starbucks around twelve thirty pm and I still had to wait in line for ten to fifteen minutes. By the time I was waiting for my drink, the line had doubled and reached the door of the building! 

Sheida, a customer at the Coffman location, and an app rewards member, ordered an iced pumpkin cream chai tea latte. “It (pumpkin chai) was the perfect amount of sweetness and the first sip always tastes like fall.” 

I also asked about this specific location and if waiting was worth it because of the long line. “While Starbucks is one of my favorite places to get coffee, the long line generally steers me away especially when I’m in a time crunch trying to get to class.” 

When asked if ordering on the app was any faster her response was, “Generally I’ve noticed that it is quicker when using the app but other times I would say that it is an equal wait.” While I agree that the Iced pumpkin cream chai tea latte was an amazing drink and brought out all of my excitement for the fall season to begin, the line made it difficult to fully experience these feelings. 

My suggestion would be to go to Starbucks for your fall drinks on a different day than Thursday if you only want one drink. The lines are typically shorter but still tend to be long. If however, you want to be there for the buy one get one promotion I would expect a longer line and would not attempt to get it in between classes if there is little time. 

I also went to Caribou Coffee on Fourth Street (West Bank) to try their fall drinks. While they only have one flavour, pumpkin, it can be put into all of their classic drinks like their espresso shaker, white mocha, latte, crafted press, chai, and cooler. 

When walking in I instantly noticed that the line was much shorter than the Starbucks line. I got my drink within five minutes of ordering and was able to easily talk to one of the friendly baristas. When talking to her I asked her what her favourite drink was and she responded, “I like the pumpkin crafted press and I like the crafted press in general, we blend it in our blender so it’s creamier and the pumpkin isn’t as strong in that (pumpkin crafted press) as in like the espresso shaker and the other ones.”

I asked about business during the fall and she responded with, “Fall is our busiest time, and also I think a lot of it is because the school year is starting and people like to get drinks in between classes but yeah the pumpkin drinks are pretty popular.”

The most popular drink according to the barista is the pumpkin espresso shaker. While there is a pickup in business yet again the wait time is minimal.

In comparison the Starbucks pumpkin is less strong than the pumpkin at Caribou but if you are looking for short lines but still want that pumpkin taste Caribou is the way to go.