Samantha's Brewed Awakening

October is the best month of the year for so many reasons, including:

1. My birthday month.
2. The delightfully brisk air.
3. Scarf and sweater weather.
4. Long walks holding hands.
5. Apple picking.
6. Jumping into piles of leaves.
7. Foliage!
8. And pumpkin EVERYTHING (inducing coffee).

I'm not a fan of french vanilla coffee flavored coffee, or any flavored coffee for that matter if it has been flavored add in. If its going to be flavored, as I have said before, it needs to be roasted in with the coffee beans before the coffee is brewed. For reference, Starbucks doesn't do this. They add it pumps of flavor which is why you say, "two pumps of vanilla please!" and it's just not very good.

I realize I am being a bit hypocritical here since I raved about Starbucks pumpkin spice. The truth is, Starbucks pumpkin spice isn't the greatest, but I am such a fan of pumpkin flavored things that even a flavor shot of pumpkin pumped into my coffee makes me happy.

The best pumpkin flavored coffee I have ever had is from a local coffee shop in small town Massachusetts where I grew up. Every fall I crave its pumpkin flavored coffee with the flavor roasted in before it is brewed. But, I am not a Massachusetts girl anymore so I set out to find a good pumpkin roast in D.C.

The search didn't take me long. The thing is, living in the city you have less boutique coffee shops and more crappy chains. But chains shouldn't always be ignored, like Bruegger's.

Wednesday is bagel day in my office because Bruegger's has a bagel special, a dozen bagels for $5.99. So today we took a walk over to the nearby Bruegger's and ordered a dozen bagels and a tub of pumpkin cream cheese - YUM! Bruegger's brews Green Mountain Coffee and since it is the best month of the year, today they were brewing pumpkin flavored coffee. I got a small cup, added a little half and half, walked out into the brisk fall air with my hot pumpkin coffee and honey bagel with pumpkin cream cheese, and it was felt like I was walking down a whiny road that looked something like this:

But it actually looked like this:

It was that good.

Seriously though, the coffee had a potent pumpkin flavor, but not overwhelming and not sweet. It allowed for the coffee to still taste like coffee, just with a hint of fall, as compared to some pumpkin drinks that taste like a caffeinated pumpkin exploded in your mouth.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I got a pumpkin yesterday!!