Christian girl autumn is upon us – wide-brim hats, knee-high boots, crispy leaves. ‘Tis the season of “live, laugh, love” and “let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will move mountains.” With autumn comes the best part of the year – Wiggin St. Coffee has officially turned over a new leaf (no deciduous tree pun intended) with their fall menu. It’s a good day to be in Gambier, OH, people! Rejoice in the toasted brown sugar aroma spiraling through the air.
Here are the new menu items for the Fall ‘23 Season: pumpkin chai, pumpkin spice latte, frosted pumpkin latte (white chocolate & pumpkin), pumpkin fluff latte (marshmallow & pumpkin), apple cider (with whipped cream, caramel drizzle, & cinnamon), and the apple crumb latte (apple, caramel, spiced brown sugar). All sound delectable (if a little…sugary) and I’ve made it my mission to give every drink a whirl before the menu is eventually replaced by Christmas-themed bologna.
One hiccup in this experiment: I didn’t make it through all the pumpkin drinks before Pumpkin-ageddon (Wiggin St. Coffee running out of pumpkin syrup), so I’ve decided to rank and review my top three drinks tried yet this season.
I ordered every drink with whole milk (a habit I will eventually break free from; I do go to a liberal arts school after all, it’s time to start drinking oat milk) and without whipped cream, if that was an option. I wanted to have similar profiles to base my criteria off of with each drink to ensure a relatively fair (yet subjective) ranking. Disclaimer: these are simply one girl’s opinions! Take them with a grain of salt and we’ll all get along. Honestly, does oat milk really improve the taste of coffee drinks that much? Let me know; I need some motivation to make the switch.
Without further adieu, here are my top three drinks from Wiggin St. Coffee this autumn.
3. Pumpkin Chai
Coming in at the coveted number three spot is the Pumpkin Chai. I’m a sucker for any kind of chai (partially because I’m deathly afraid of a crippling caffeine addiction) and Wiggin St. always has the most fun variations and syrups for their chai lattes. My one big critique of this drink was that the pumpkin felt too much and not enough at the same time (sipping on it reminded me of that scene from Ten Things I Hate About You when Charity says to Bianca: “I know you can be overwhelmed and you can be underwhelmed but can’t you ever just be… whelmed?”). Also, Wiggin St. has a bad habit of making their chais very watery, which is an easily fixable problem; I’m just picky!
I give this drink a 7/10.
2. Apple Crumb Latte
When I went to order this, I asked the very nice woman taking my order: “Be honest with me, does this drink taste like a Bath & Body Works candle? Am I going to feel like I’m sipping on the liquid version of autumn-themed air freshener?” She hesitated for a moment and then said, “No, I don’t think so?” Her hesitation gave me pause, but for you, dear reader, I persevered. I’m glad I did! I actually really enjoyed the blend of apple and coffee (which felt perilous at first, but turned out to be a delightful flavor profile). There was a slight tinge of candle in the aftertaste. To be fair, I suckled that drink down to the dregs within seconds, so that’s how I know I enjoyed it.
I give this drink a 7.9/10 (with points knocked off for the astronomically huge ice cubes that turned my drink into a coffee-flavored ice water within moments and the mild air-freshener aftertaste).
1. Apple Cider
And this author’s favorite drink of the season is (*drumroll here please*)… the apple cider! I tried hard to resist the allure of the cider, I really did. At the end of the day, no watery chai or latte could hold up to the standard of this perfectly spiced, golden elixir. Taking that first sip felt like coming home from war. Or something. I don’t know. All I know is that this drink elicited a visceral “mmh” after the first sip. I didn’t get the whipped cream (as elucidated in the earlier “methods” section of my experiment, #womaninstem) because I do not believe that dairy and cider should mix in such close quarters. If you believe that, I’m happy for you. I won’t yuck your yum (but it is a wee bit gross). The caramel melted in the cider within seconds, adding a layer of sweetness to the already sweet drink. I will say, my teeth felt a little bit fuzzy after drinking this, but that’s nothing some mouthwash (which you should always keep on you as a principle) couldn’t fix.
I rate this drink a 9/10 (only for the weird things it did to my enamel and also the audacity Wiggin St. Coffee has to be putting whipped cream on a clear, apple-based drink).
In conclusion, once the pumpkin syrup is replenished, you can bet I will be frequenting the establishment to give the other drinks a good old-fashioned spin. I don’t even like coffee all that much (like I said, fear of the caffeine addiction that I have seen so many of my comrades fall victim to), but I have to keep experimenting, just to see if the apple cider stays at the top of my ranking. I’m considering putting together a Dance Moms-style pyramid with all the Wiggin St. Coffee drinks for the autumnal season. We’ll see! What’s your favorite fall drink and why is it apple cider?