It’s the most wonderful time of the year—pumpkin spice season.
Like coffee chains worldwide, Tim Hortons has jumped onto the pumpkin spice train in a big way, releasing 7 pumpkin spice items—4 drinks and 3 baked goods—as part of their 2019 fall menu. The limited-time pumpkin spice goodies dropped on August 28th, officially declaring that fall is upon us.
Timmies’ fall menu features pumpkin-spice-inspired takes on beloved classics, including pumpkin spice versions of their iced cappuccino, latte, tea, tea latte, doughnut, Timbit and muffin.
We tried all of Tim Hortons’ pumpkin spice items to see if they live up to the autumnal hype.
Topped with pumpkin seeds and filled with cream, Tim’s Pumpkin Spice Muffin doesn’t taste much like pumpkin, or spice. Instead, this “new” muffin looks and tastes suspiciously like the chain’s carrot cake and walnut muffin. It’s not an unwelcome addition, but we had hoped for something a bit more seasonal.
This doughnut is covered in a pumpkin-spice glaze and has a nice, dense, cake-like base. Like the muffin, however, the pumpkin spice taste wasn’t very apparent—one staffer commented that they liked the doughnut as a doughnut, but she didn’t quite get the fall-time flavour she was looking for.
Just like its doughnut counterpart, the Pumpkin Spice Timbit is a great Timbit (a perfect, bite-sized treat) but it doesn’t give us the desired pumpkin spice flavour.
Like all of the lattes at Tim’s, their Pumpkin Spice Latte is just...fine. There’s no latte-defining espresso taste, but it’s satisfyingly creamy. Their Pumpkin Spice Latte definitely isn’t as good as the trend-defining Starbucks PSL, but does have a pleasant subtle pumpkin spice aftertaste.
Tim’s Pumpkin Spice Iced Capp is just a normal iced capp topped with whipped cream and pumpkin spice drizzle. It’s great for someone who loves iced capps but is ambivalent about pumpkin spice (like me!). But if you’re looking for a cold fall drink that’s full of pumpkin spice magic, this isn’t it.
Following their experiments with other tea lattes, like their London Fog and Vanilla Chai latte, Tim’s is introducing a Pumpkin Spice tea latte as a caffeine-free fall option. Made with steamed milk and their Pumpkin Spice specialty tea, this new drink option is lacklustre. Though we enjoyed the flavour of the tea, we found the latte itself to be too watery.
This was our favourite pumpkin spice offering. Though as one bilingual staffer noted, the drink’s French name—“épices d’automne”—roughly translates to “fall spices,” which is a much more accurate descriptor—we thought that this drink was the best seasonal drink. Made with rooibos herbal tea and a blend of spices, it tastes just like fall smells (this is nicer than it sounds, we swear). Plus, what says “fall” more than cozying up with a warm cup of tea?
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