By the Yerba Buena Tea Co. team. August 2026.
The quick version: steep 3 teaspoons of Pumpkin Spice in 6 oz of just-boiled water for 4 minutes, add 6 oz of steamed milk, and finish with 2 teaspoons of maple and a pinch of salt. Warm, spiced, and nowhere near as sweet as the drive-thru version. The full recipe card is just below, along with the iced method for warm afternoons.
The best part of a pumpkin spice latte is the spice
Not the syrup. That's the whole argument, and it stops being an argument the moment you taste the two side by side. A coffee shop PSL leads with sugar and finishes with a vague warmth somewhere behind it. This one leads with cinnamon bark and crystallized ginger, and the sweetness sits underneath where it belongs.
5 minutes, one tin, no espresso machine.
Why tea works better than espresso here
Espresso and pumpkin spice are fighting each other. Roast bitterness and warm baking spice sit in the same low, dark register, so the only way to make the spice read is to pile on syrup until it wins. That's why a coffee PSL is sweet. It has to be.
Black tea sits higher and brighter. It carries milk beautifully and stays out of the way of the cinnamon and cardamom, so you can cut the sweetener by two thirds without the drink going flat.
Our Pumpkin Spice is built for exactly this: a robust organic black tea blended with cinnamon bark, cardamom pods, and crystallized ginger. That last one is doing the heavy lifting. Dried ginger gives you heat. Crystallized ginger gives you heat plus a candied, lingering finish that reads as richness, which is the closest a dry leaf gets to tasting like dessert.
4 minutes, not 5
This blend is cinnamon-forward and cinnamon needs time to open. But the black base turns astringent past 4 minutes at latte strength, and that astringency reads as bitterness the moment milk fat hits your palate. Set a timer and pull it at 4.
Steam the milk to 140 to 150°F
Working without a thermometer? Pull it when you can still hold the jug for a slow count of three. Past about 160°F, milk starts tasting cooked and its natural sweetness drops off, which is the most common mistake in home lattes and the easiest one to fix. Oat milk scorches faster than dairy, so watch it more closely.
Barista oat and whole dairy both work. Oat brings its own gentle sweetness that suits the spice, and whole milk brings more body.
The pinch of salt is the trick
Salt softens your perception of bitterness and lifts your perception of sweetness, which is how 2 teaspoons of maple does the work of 6. Add the pinch, and the maple opens right up.
The iced version
Late August stays warm well past the start of pumpkin season. Bump the leaf to 4 teaspoons in 5 oz of water, steep the same 4 minutes, then chill the concentrate completely before it touches ice.
The chill is what holds the drink together. When cold concentrate meets cold ice, the spice oils stay in suspension and the flavor pours at full strength. 20 minutes in the refrigerator, or a shorter spell in the freezer, gets you there. Sweeten while the concentrate is still warm so the maple dissolves cleanly, then pour over a full glass of ice and top with 5 oz of cold milk.
The same cold-brew principles apply to any blend in our iced tea guide.
Two ways to go deeper
Richer: swap the maple for homemade pumpkin spice syrup. Real purée simmered with cinnamon stick, clove, and freshly grated nutmeg gives the drink a rounder body that maple alone won't.
Bolder: brew Pumpkin Spice alongside our Chai in equal parts and simmer the whole thing on the stove with pumpkin purée whisked into the milk. That's a different drink and a better one, and it has its own recipe.
The full recipe, with the iced timing in the notes, is in the card below.
Frequently asked questions
Does pumpkin spice tea actually contain pumpkin?
Ours doesn't, and neither does most of what you've been drinking. "Pumpkin spice" describes the spice blend used in pumpkin pie, not the squash itself: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove, allspice. Pumpkin purée contributes body and color more than flavor. For that texture, whisk a spoonful into the milk before steaming, and it stays smooth to the last sip. Our pumpkin chai latte is built around exactly that move.
How much caffeine is in a pumpkin spice tea latte?
Pumpkin Spice is a high-caffeine black tea, so a 12 oz latte lands in the neighborhood of a strong cup of black tea rather than a coffee. Our caffeine chart has the numbers for every blend.
Is there a caffeine-free version?
Build the same latte on South African Chai, a naturally caffeine-free rooibos with the same warming spice profile. It takes milk just as well, and it's the right call after two in the afternoon. The rest of the evening lineup lives in our caffeine-free collection.
What are the orange flecks in the dry leaf?
Marigold petals. They're there for the color, and they look genuinely beautiful scattered across a white counter, so go ahead and photograph them. The spices carry the flavor.
Can I make a pitcher ahead?
Brew the concentrate and keep it covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, then add milk by the glass so both stay bright.
Blended in our Salem, Oregon kitchen.
