Avoid This Popular Brand Next Time You Buy Pumpkin Spice Coffee Pods
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
From pumpkin spice-flavored hot cocoa to fall-inspired muffins and even spiced cookies, there is nothing quite like bringing in the autumnal season with the warm aromas of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. And when it comes to the famed pumpkin spice latte (affectionately given the acronym PSL), coffee shops around the nation have pulled out their seasonal menus in an effort to appease avid PSL fans.
However, for those of you at home, enjoying a nice hot cup of pumpkin-spiced coffee is as easy as loading a flavored coffee pod into your machine, and with dozens of brands to choose from, the options may seem daunting. But we've narrowed it down for you in order to find which brand is simply not worth the buy; after all, not all brands are created equal. According to our research, out of the nine pumpkin spice coffee pods we ranked, one stood out as far worse than the others: the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice blend.
Despite Starbucks being widely known for its invention of the now-iconic PSL, this flavored pod simply did not hit the mark. According to the box, this coffee should contain notes of pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg. We admit that these limited-time flavored coffee pods, lightly roasted and made with Arabica beans, do sound tempting. However, not everything is as it seems; in reality, these beans taste of chemicals, making the experience mimic that of ingesting soap or other heavily scented non-edible products.
A number of shoppers have noted their disappointment with this product.
Don't just take our word for it; unhappy customers online have taken to the Target reviews page in an effort to warn others about this lackluster fall coffee product. And while this coffee may have received 4 stars from a little over a thousand customers, only 36% of them would recommend purchasing a box. These Starbucks Pumpkin Spice coffee pods just taste bad.
One shopper commented: "I'm not sure what it is but the after taste is soap and chemical. It's so awful I can't even drink it. It's not able to even be disguised with adding other coffee to it or flavored creamer." That is quite the statement, considering the fact that coffee creamers work to lighten up some of the bitterness of roasted coffee beans, adding in a bit of sweetness and fat to mask some of that natural astringency. "It's disgusting. Something has changed," another dissatisfied customer stated. "Great values version tasted better, which has never happened for me before with this specific product. I hope next years will be back to normal.. But for this year, I will be trying different brands."
Considering the fact that this review was left last year, and the one above it was posted just last month, it appears that Starbucks may not have gotten the message in time for its 2026 production. So the next time you head to the store to satisfy your PSL cravings, consider skipping the Starbucks brand of pumpkin-spiced brew. Maybe try a different brand, like Firehouse or Don Francisco's, or perhaps skip the flavored coffee and try the pumpkin spice syrup from this hidden gem brand.