AustiNuts Pumpkin Kernels are Some Kind of Magic

There must be some kind of magic in Austin that removes the stringy shell off the pumpkin seeds and leaves behind the delicious inner kernel. Rachel sent me a bag of AustiNuts pumpkin kernels. These things are rich and nutty, almost meaty: Amazing. I've always liked the idea of roasted pumpkins seeds. Sometimes I even like roasted pumpkin seeds. It's hard to get the salt balance right, but even more difficult to roast them so the shells are edible.

AustiNuts has solved this problem with some magic that gets the shells off the pumpkin seeds. It never occurred to me that this was possible. Since it's almost pumpkin carving time, I'll have to see if I can figure out this trick.

Pumpkin Latte Tasting

Gail and I compared pumpkin lattes from Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks and Peet's today. These were remarkably different from each other. I preferred the Peet's and Gail preferred the Dunkin' Donuts. Here's the breakdown.

Dunkin' Donuts Pumpkin Latte: $3.19 for a small with a doughnut. We got it without sugar added, and added one pack of sugar on our own. It had a light pumpkin flavor, and started out with the right level of sweetness. After a while, it seems like syrup at the bottom of the cup mixed in, because it became far sweeter, beyond what I liked. If you have one, stir it well before adding more sugar. The other oddity was that nobody steamed any milk while making it. Despite the steamed milk coming out of a machine, it was thick enough to hold up a stirrer.

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte: $4.01 for a small. We didn't add sugar this time. It was still very sweet for me. Gail said it tasted like pumpkin pie, which I thought was a good thing. Gail doesn't like pumpkin pie. The pumpkin and cinnamon was very pronounced in this drink.







Peet's Coffee Pumpkin Latte: $3:75 for a small. Once again, we didn't add sugar, and this one was not nearly as sweet as the other two. The Peet's latte had a cardamom flavor that Gail didn't like. I liked this one best, but I think it was mostly because the sweetness was lower. Even though this was my favorite, I don't think I would get another pumpkin latte. They were all just too much for me. Peet's gets an extra shout out because we were served by one of our favorite neighborhood teens.

Monin Pumpkin Spice Syrup

Gail has been on a fall quest for a a pumpkin latte that we can make at home. We may have found it. This morning I made us lattes using a tablespoon of Monin Pumpkin Spice syrup in the foam. Yum.