Desserts

Pumpkin Treats Are Adding Fall Feels to Hot Days

Warm sips, yummy muffins, and milkshakes, too: Several SoCal spots have sweet 'n spicy ways to connect with cool times soon to come.

Verve Coffee/Porto's Bakery/Shake Shack

What to Know

  • Find a Pumpkin Pie Latte through September at Verve Coffee Roasters
  • Pumpkin Muffins are back at Porto's Bakery
  • Shake Shack just unveiled a Fall Shake Trio on its milkshakes menu

Los Angeles, it may be stated with some confidence, isn't covered with a tangle of pumpkin vines.

Leafy green stems aren't twisting along the sides of our city's tallest skyscrapers, nor running down the center dividers of our famous freeways, and finding a bounty of colorful squashes covering our beaches?

The Pacific-close sections of Southern California remain generally free of pumpkins, as do our streets and buildings.

And yet, when September arrives?

It can feel as though we're living in something of a large-scale pumpkin patch, if not visually, or even actually, then definitely treatfully. For pumpkin-themed treats are whimsically ruling our coffeehouses and sweet shops in the final days of summer, giving us a taste of autumn even as the weather remains incredibly warm.

True, the obsessed-over Pumpkin Spice Latte is now holding iconic court at your local Starbucks, and other PSL-inspired drinks elsewhere are tempting coffee fans eager for fall to start sooner.

Verve Coffee Roasters are "rolling" into the pumpkin-strong sip game with a latte that takes its appetizing inspiration not just from the pumpkin but pumpkin pie. It's an "... espresso-based drink with pumpkin puree, house flavor, a mix of warm-based spices, and garnished with graham cracker crumble," and you can find it at all Verve locations through September.

Porto's Bakery is always in the seasonal swing, and on the all-important muffin front? The beloved local desserts-and-more institution understands that we prefer our September snacking to possess a bit of pumpkin oomph.

Which all leads to this: The popular Pumpkin Muffin is back at Porto's, so find your tum-filling munchable in Buena Park, Downey, as well as the company's other locations, including its newest in Northridge.

And hello to you, tempting Fall Shake Trio, the newest limited-time offering at Shake Shack. Included in the summer-meets-autumn line-up? The Apple Cider Donut Shake, the Pumpkin Patch Shake, and a Choco Salted Toffee Shake.

The starting price for these get-them-while-they-last confections?

It's $6.09 per seasonal shake, though prices may vary.

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