The Best Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte
How to make the best pumpkin spice latte at home with pumpkin puree, coffee, milk, and fall spices. Better than store-bought! Jump to the Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe or watch our quick video showing you how to make it.
Watch Us Make It
How to Make the Best Pumpkin Spice Latte at Home
The moment Fall hits, we rush to our local coffee shop and order a pumpkin spice latte. We love them so much, we took it upon ourselves to try making it at home.
This recipe is easy and I bet you have most, if not everything, you need to make it at home right now. It also comes together in under 10 minutes!
Start by heating milk, pumpkin puree (here’s our homemade pumpkin puree), sugar, pumpkin pie spices, and vanilla extract on the stove. You can use whole, 2%, skim, or dairy-free milk. Coconut or almond milk would be delicious.
Then we combine the pumpkin spice milk with strong coffee. The mixture is divided between two mugs and it’s time for whipped cream. Simple, quick, and no coffee shop lines.
More Pumpkin Recipes
- Easy Pumpkin Mac and Cheese — How to make extra creamy pumpkin mac and cheese in under 1 hour. The perfect Fall dinner!
- Homemade Pumpkin Pancakes — We love these pumpkin pancakes: not too sweet with a hint of spice.
- Seriously Good Pumpkin Cupcakes — These moist spiced pumpkin cupcakes are hard to beat.
- Homemade (and easy) Pumpkin Pie — How to make classic, unfussy pumpkin pie from scratch. This is our favorite way to make pumpkin pie. It’s easy, too!
- Pumpkin Scones — How to make the best spiced pumpkin scones inspired by Starbucks.
Recipe updated, originally posted November 2011. Since posting this in 2011, we have added a recipe video and tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne
The Best Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte
- PREP
Make the popular coffee house pumpkin spice latte at home. Canned or homemade pumpkin puree both work well in this recipe. Here’s our recipe for making pumpkin puree from scratch.
Makes 2 Drinks
You Will Need
2 cups milk (dairy or non-dairy)
2 tablespoons pumpkin puree, or more to taste, see our homemade pumpkin puree recipe
1 to 3 tablespoons sugar, depending on how sweet you like it
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, plus more for serving
1/2 cup strong hot coffee
Whipped cream, for serving
Directions
Add milk, pumpkin puree, and sugar to a saucepan over medium heat. Heat until hot, but do not boil. Remove the saucepan from the heat and whisk in the vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, and the coffee.
Divide the mixture between two mugs. Top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Milk: This tastes best with 2% or whole milk, but you can substitute with skim milk. Non-dairy milk like soy, almond, or coconut milk will also work.
- Sugar: This recipe calls for 1 to 3 tablespoons of sugar. How much you use is up to you. We tend to prefer less sugar in our drinks. You can also use a sugar substitute. Add this to taste.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend: Find pumpkin pie spice at the store or make it at home. You likely have everything you need to make it already. Mix the following spices in a spice jar: 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon + 2 teaspoons ground ginger + 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg + a pinch of ground cloves.
- More Pumpkin Flavor: Since posting this recipe, some readers have noted that they would prefer a stronger pumpkin flavor. You can achieve this two ways: increase the puree by 1 to 2 tablespoons or cook a large batch of puree down in a saucepan over medium heat until reduced and concentrated in flavor, and then use in the latte.
- Nutrition Facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values. We assumed 2% milk and 1 tablespoon of sugar.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
Nutrition Per Serving: Serving Size 1 drink / Calories 171 / Protein 9 g / Carbohydrate 21 g / Dietary Fiber 1 g / Total Sugars 20 g / Total Fat 6 g / Saturated Fat 4 g / Cholesterol 24 mg
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This is good even tho it is still summer I love it
I am writing this as I’m drinking my pumpkin spice latte with my Best friend! This is so good and we will probably make this a million times again! Thanks for this amazing recipe and we would definitely recommend it!
This is the best recipe! I’ve made others and they’re nothing in comparison. My only change to this one is that I don’t find the need to strain the pumpkin.
I followed the recipe as precisely as I could and may have added a little more pumpkin purée than recommended. But for some reason, my latte had no pumpkin flavour and resembled the taste of warm milk. I don’t enjoy leaving hate comments but this was quite the disappointment.
Same here! Tried to follow the recipe exactly but no taste. I added more spice or sugar to try and bring the flavor out. Nope. Tasted flat. Very disappointed:(
Hi Rebecca, we are sorry to read that you did not enjoy the recipe. One thing you might try next time is to cook the pumpkin puree down a little before adding to the milk mixture. This way, the pumpkin flavor will concentrate. I’d imagine that you could do this in a larger batch, and then keep the concentrated puree in the fridge for when you are ready to make your next latte. Hope that helps!(I’m experimenting with this, myself.)
Hi, I tried your recipe and it was delicious
I made this for my adult son today and he said that it was awesome! He thought it was even better than what you buy at the coffee shops.
I had never tasted this before (i’m from france, and it is not something famous here) But I have heard so much about it, that I wanted to try. Today I finally made it, and I can say this is the best pumpkin spice latte I’ve ever had in my whole life (hehe :p)
I just added a liiiitle bit more coffee, my espresso wasn’t probably strong enough when I made it. Thank you very much! This is delicious – currently drinking it while writing this 😉
This was unbelievably good. I was shocked. I don’t care for pumpkin spice lattes but I made my pumpkin cheesecakes and thought why not make my husband his fav pie in a drink for this morning? It came out perfect. So comforting. I loved it and so did he. I always have pumpkin pie spice. So I had it in my pantry. Also used my leftover pumpkin pie puree I use for my cheesecakes. So perfect. Thank you for putting together this concoction lol. This is for sure a keeper. Thanks again.
Great tasting. This is my fall pick this season. Others I have tried didn’t come close taste wise. Thank you for sharing.
Perfect treat! Better than Starbucks. I could control the calories by changing milk and sugar substitute. Thank you for the recipe!
Delicious. I appreciate the way you deliver your instructions.
Eveyone said it was good, but everyone used a substitution, lol. Anyone do it as written? How is it?
I just did it as written for the second time today! I did it once yesterday but added too much pumpkin pie spice on accident lol. It tasted great if you do it as written though! Drinking mine rn!
Made it – it was PERFECT. I added extra tablespoon or so of pumpkin when I was warming the milk. I also used a combination of so delicious coconut milk, and full fat coconut milk from a can (organic). Its just like starbucks, but better for me. Thanks for the recipe!!! Now I don’t have to wait until fall for this treat, and can make it healthy.
Yum! I did use skim milk and drizzled caramel syrup on top of the whipped cream. Great recipe and it does keep well in the fridge if you want to make a bigger batch and reheat it. Thanks!!
Reheat in th microwave or on the stove?
Yes, I made it for the first time. I used the recipe very simple. Very good and creamy. I used caramel syrup instead of vanilla. 😊 time to savor and enjoy!!
I usually hit the milk mixture with my immersion blender to make it frothy. Otherwise, it’s perfect!