Pumpkin spice lattes are all about combining nostalgia with the warming spices of fall — but don’t just stop there! Below is a sampling of the flavors local coffee shops are offering this time of year.
Chai!
Nearly every Saturday last fall, I treated myself to a hot oat milk chai (or sometimes a chai and chapati!) from Red Wolf Chai Co. at the Mill City Farmers Market. Red Wolf, named for the endangered species from the Bale Highlands of Oromia, Ethiopia, brews its chai for hours and uses Kenyan black tea as its base. At the farmers market, there’s no extra charge for oat milk (yesss!). The four friends who run the business describe themselves as “Muslim kids, East African kids” who have set their sights on building community one cup at a time.
Also noteworthy is Chiya Chai, developed by the owners of Namaste Café, a Nepali and Indian restaurant in Uptown. (If you look at the restaurant menu, you can see how seriously they take their chai, with a variety of options like chai-infused cocktails.) I typically order this chai at the cafe inside Inkwell Booksellers, where I can sip and read a good book (or write these newsletters!).
Scandinavian!
We’re lucky to have some Scandinavian spots that use warming cardamom to great effect. These include FIKA Café at the American Swedish Institute, where you can order a Hot Swede — their house-brewed coffee with cardamom syrup and cardamom whipped cream. In St. Paul’s Como neighborhood, The Finnish Bistro sells a pulla latte, inspired by the pulla rolls they sell, with almond, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom mixed with espresso and steamed milk. And Corner Coffee, with multiple metro locations, offers a Nordic latte with cardamom, vanilla, and cinnamon syrup.
Brown Sugar Bliss!
The fall menu at New Zealand-inspired cafe Silver Fern includes a Cookie Butter Latte (made with Biscoff cookies), a Cinnamon Roll Latte, and a Carrot Cake Latte with cream cheese cold foam. The Northeast Minneapolis cafe also offers seasonal drink flights, so patrons can try four mini-drinks in one sitting. (P.S. Silver Fern is also famous for their biscuits, which are served with seasonal spreads such as maple butter and housemade apple butter.)
I was recently in St. Paul’s Quixotic Coffee and witnessed the same fall drink ordered by multiple patrons one after the other, after the other. It was the Miso Cozy Latte, a drink made with miso-maple-brown sugar syrup and topped with a brown butter whipped cream and toasted brown sugar. The friend I was meeting ordered it as well, and while we didn’t taste the miso, we both loved the brown-sugar creaminess.
In time for Halloween, this draculatte combines raspberry white mocha with espresso or matcha. (Courtesy of Càphin Minneapolis)
Fruits and Vegetables (That Aren’t Pumpkin!)
Sweet Potato
When I first tasted the sweet potato chai (also available as a latte) at Moona Moono last year, it was so smooth and balanced that it made me question my previous pumpkin spice commitment. Sweet potato lattes are also available at Corner Coffee, made with sweet potato syrup, nutmeg, espresso, milk, and topped with mini marshmallows.
Ube
Càphin Minneapolis, which started as a beloved coffee trailer at farmers’ markets, now has two brick-and-mortars in Linden Hills and downtown Minneapolis. (For more on their journey, read this profile!) My go-to is their egg coffee, but if that pale purple color is calling you, check out their popular Ube Dream Latte. Ube, a vibrant purple yam, has a mellow, nutty, and mildly sweet profile. The latte combines a housemade ube syrup with equal parts robusta espresso and Vietnamese-grown arabica. This month, they’ll start serving their draculatte, a raspberry white mocha topped with espresso or matcha.
Red Bean
Diane’s Place in Northeast Minneapolis has really blown up over the last few years after it made multiple national best-of lists. Red beans are a highlight at this Hmong-influenced restaurant, appearing in dishes such as the warm sesame balls with red bean caramel sauce, as well as some of the cafe drinks. My go-to is the red bean steamer for its comforting and earthy flavor. Try it! And for coffee drinkers, there’s also a red bean latte. The restaurant’s recent renovations include an expansion and a new grab-and-go cafe. Uptown’s Moona Moono also serves a red bean latte and a red bean milk tea.
Fig
Fatuma Ali, a former finalist for Minnesota Teacher of the Year, opened Nur House Cafe this March along with her brothers, Ahmed and Abdulqadir. The cafe, located across from U.S. Bank Stadium, offers a Somali-inspired menu, with fall features including a fig vanilla beverage made with a house-crafted fig syrup, almond milk or oat milk, and served as a matcha, latte, or chai. When I visited, I was asked which sweetness level I wanted: One for lightly sweetened, two for their standard, and three for sweetest. Grab chai sugar cookies and slices of cardamom spice loaf to complement your drink.
