It’s officially autumn. The season’s most infamous caffeinated beverage, the Pumpkin Spice Latte, is available at Starbucks locations across the nation. Predictably delicious, the latte inspires the drinker to stroll through a pumpkin patch, pick some apples or take a haunted hayride.
While Starbucks is a household name that produces quality coffee, it doesn’t hold a monopoly on the Austin coffee scene. While the Pumpkin Spice Latte is great, it’s not the only autumnal drink special available to UT students.
Austin is home to dozens of coffee shops that offer signature beverages. Three of these companies, O’s Campus Cafe, Texas Coffee Traders and Summer Moon Wood-Fired Coffee, have seasonal offerings that provide tasty alternatives to those looking to expand their coffee and tea repertoire.
A few sips of these flavorful creations will give the drinker the caffeine boost and sugar rush to study for an upcoming midterm, carve a spooky face onto a pumpkin or frolic through a colorful pile of fallen leaves.
O’s Campus Cafe
Members of the UT community looking for a unique fall drink don’t need to travel off campus. O’s Campus Cafe has three fall specials that may be familiar to caffeine connoisseurs and new to those experimenting with different drinks.
The Midnight Mocha is an espresso and milk-based based beverage, flavored with chocolate and French vanilla. The London Fog is Earl Grey tea mixed with milk and lavender flavoring. Spiced Chai is chai tea flavored with cinnamon.
O’s has twelve campus locations, including the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Building, McCombs School of Business and the Connally Center for Justice. The cafe also offers food for breakfast and lunch.
Texas Coffee Traders
Texas Coffee Traders is an artisanal coffee roaster that specializes in different types of coffee. The main location’s interior resembles a library dedicated to the caffeinated beverage. It has five seasonally-themed beverages that combine unique and well-known ingredients to distill a drinking experience that is distinctly Texan.
The Texas Fair is a Texas Pecan coffee with hot milk and salted caramel. The Haunted Hayride is a coffee drink that adds cinnamon and pumpkin pie flavoring to the classic white mocha. The Pumpkinhead is a cold brew coffee with oat milk and notes of pumpkin. They also offer two seasonal lattes, the well-known Pumpkin Spice and the Wake N Cake, a maple spice latte.
The company was established in 1994 in Austin, and provides freshly roasted beans to cafes, restaurants and coffee drinkers in the city. The main shop is located on 4th Street in East Austin. There are also four locations on the UT campus in the Gates Dell Complex, Robert Lee Moore Hall, Jackson School of Geosciences and Art Building and Museum.
Summer Moon Coffee
Family-owned Summer Moon Coffee opened in 2002. Employees at Summer Moon hand-roast their coffee beans every day in a stone hearth. The company has multiple Austin locations, so coffee lovers can purchase their seasonal special across the city.
The Autumn Moon Latte is a mix of espresso, the cafe’s signature sweet cream, Moon Milk, and autumn spices. The name of the shop’s autumnal offering conjures images of “Peanuts” cartoon characters, Linus and Sally, sitting in a field at midnight waiting for the great pumpkin to rise from the horizon into the night sky.
