(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
18 of L.A.’s best pumpkin spice lattes and seasonal drinks to sip this fall
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Warm Santa Ana winds that scatter palm fronds on sidewalks. The Dodgers playing in another postseason. A new lineup of cozy caffeinated beverages at your favorite local coffee shop. These are the signs of fall in Los Angeles.
It’s been more than 20 years since Starbucks first released its pumpkin spice latte, but the autumnal trend is showing no signs of slowing down — now it starts in August. Here in L.A., neighborhood cafes embrace the season by pulling inspiration from our abundance of farmers market produce and the diverse cultures that shape our city.
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In addition to now-classic pumpkin spice, you’ll find espresso lattes sweetened to resemble salted maple pancakes, cookie butter and apple pie as well as an influx of embellished matcha and hojicha creations that reflect L.A.’s growing tea scene.
From a pumpkin pie latte crowned with graham cracker crumbles to a subtly sweet honey cardamom concoction, here are 18 of the best seasonal drinks to sip in L.A. this fall:
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Be Bright Coffee
Fairfax Coffee $
(Danielle Dorsey/Los Angeles Times)
The Melrose Avenue coffee shop from husband-and-wife owners Frank and Michelle La is known for its award-winning coffee that’s locally roasted on a weekly basis, plus accolades such as Frank earning the title of 2024 U.S. Barista Champion and barista Christian Kim taking second place at the 2025 U.S. Brewers Cup. This fall, the cafe released a lineup of seasonal drinks served over ice, including a pumpkin pie latte with house-made pumpkin spice syrup, espresso, milk and pumpkin spice cold foam topped with crushed graham crackers and the happy camper with maple and vanilla syrups, espresso, milk, cold foam and smoked sea salt. Other autumnal specialties include a pumpkin cream cold brew, black sesame mocha, an apple cider tonic and spiced apple espresso cream soda.
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BLVD Cafecito
Burbank Coffeehouse $
(Stephanie Breijo/Los Angeles Times)
One of Burbank’s best cafes usually keeps things festive, offering the likes of love-themed menus in February and Krampus-inspired concoctions in winter. This autumn BLVD Cafecito unveiled a handful of drinks that feel like fall even during a Valley heatwave, and they’re all available hot or cold. Now through at least the end of the month, drop by for pumpkin spice lattes or maple spice lattes adorned with cinnamon sugar, or take your mocha to the next level by ordering the s’mores latte, which transforms the classic with fluffy marshmallow cold foam and a sprinkling of graham cracker crumb. If you can’t go apple picking, there’s also a new caramel apple latte that’s sweetened with caramel apple syrup and crowned with a creamy sweet-tart apple cold foam. What’s more, BLVD Cafecito’s seasonal house-made cold foams of granny apple, pumpkin spice, and toasted marshmallow can be added to any drink, in case you’d prefer to add just a touch of autumn to your usual order.
Dayglow
Silver Lake Coffee
(Stephanie Breijo/Los Angeles Times)
This fall marked the return of one of Dayglow’s best caffeinated concoctions: The Fantastic Mr. Fox, originally created for founder Tohm Ifergan’s director-inspired drink series. He pays homage to Wes Anderson’s film and subverts the usual pumpkin-spice flavor profile by combining apple with pumpkin in a layered espresso drink made of cider-infused oat milk, apple-fermented coffee beans, and a pumpkin-tinged cream topping. Available both hot and cold, and tasting of fall in either variation, it’s one of the city’s more thoughtful PSL renditions.
“The addition of pumpkin just made more sense,” Ifergan told The Times. “I think apple and pumpkin work really well together, but you don’t see it often.” Find it in Silver Lake, Larchmont and the new outpost in Chinatown.
“The addition of pumpkin just made more sense,” Ifergan told The Times. “I think apple and pumpkin work really well together, but you don’t see it often.” Find it in Silver Lake, Larchmont and the new outpost in Chinatown.
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Demitasse
Santa Monica Café $
(Melody Xu/Los Angeles Times)
In its more than 15 years of existence, Demitasse has never sold a vanilla latte. It does, however, have an in-house herb garden and strict zero-waste policy. But owner Bobak Roshan is now issuing a caveat to his no-vanilla-latte mandate with the debut of Morning Cigarette, espresso or matcha latte sweetened with vanilla bean and black cardamom, served with “cigarette ash” garnish (powdered sugar and activated charcoal). Also on Demitasse’s eclectic autumn menu is the Slowfall, an Ethiopian Kyoto iced coffee with walnut miso rosemary syrup and cream top, garnished with rosemary from an in-house garden. Last up is Bobby Said Persimmon, a refresher made with non-alcoholic spirit from Optimist and sparkling water, sweetened with persimmon syrup made with fruit sourced from the nearby Santa Monica Farmers Market.
Goodboybob
Manhattan Beach Café $
(Melody Xu/Los Angeles Times)
If there’s anything besides coffee that this west L.A. mini-chain adores most, it’s art — or dogs. Founded by Redondo Beach native Erich Joiner and named for his family dog, Bob, the flagship Santa Monica location was initially more of an artistic gathering space until Joiner later added the coffee component. All three of its locations today — Santa Monica, Venice and Manhattan Beach — may be just blocks from the ocean waves, but you can still feel somewhat autumnal sipping this season’s rosemary caramel latte. It’s an espresso-based latte with housemade rosemary caramel syrup and topped with a sprig of fresh rosemary. Or pay tribute to pie season with the blueberry pie matcha, a ceremonial grade matcha latte sweetened with housemade forest blueberry pie puree.
Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen
Inglewood Coffee Breakfast/Brunch
(Jakob N. Layman)
Hilltop Coffee was born out of co-owners Yonnie Hagos, Ajay Relay and Issa Rae’s love of coffee shops as third spaces and wanting to bring a similar offering to the South L.A. neighborhoods where they grew up. The cafe has since expanded to four locations, but the menu remains as consistent as ever, with complex Ethiopian brews, smoothies, breakfast burritos and beignets. This fall and winter, Hilltop is reviving its popular sweet potato latte that’s available hot or cold and made with espresso; choice of milk; house-made roasted sweet potato purée; seasonal spices such as nutmeg, allspice and vanilla bean; brown sugar; and topped with cinnamon and clove dust. The sweet-savory beverage will remain on the menu through New Year’s Eve.
Homegirl Cafe
Chinatown Latin American American $
(Stephanie Breijo/Los Angeles Times)
This community-oriented cafe is serving pumpkin spice with a purpose. Homegirl Cafe — and its tandem Homeboy Bakery — help employ and train formerly incarcerated and formerly gang-affiliated Angelenos, providing job training, industry experience and kinship. The Chinatown cafe serves hot and cold pumpkin spice lattes with well-spiced house-made pumpkin syrup that’s made from real pumpkin, and even spruced up one of the bakery’s bestselling items to pair with it: Homeboy Bakery developed an autumnal pumpkin version of its thick, fluffy wedges of coffee cake, which often sells out early.
Kavat
Eagle Rock Coffee Armenian $
(Stephanie Breijo/Los Angeles Times)
There are finely ground Armenian coffees to be sipped along with more ubiquitous espresso drinks, rose lattes and matchas, but this fall L.A.’s only coffee shop run by System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian is getting autumnal. Eagle Rock’s Kavat Coffee recently launched two seasonal concoctions: a cinnamon-tinged maple oat latte, lightly sweetened with maple, and a pumpkin spice cheesecake latte. The latter is sweet and savory, and adds pumpkin syrup to the espresso and milk of your choosing, then tops it with a thick, house-made salted cream cheese cold foam that’s showered with nutmeg. Enjoy alongside baklava, boreg and other treats baked fresh in neighboring Glendale.
Kumquat
Highland Park Coffee
(Stephanie Breijo/Los Angeles Times)
One of the city’s best pumpkin spice lattes is also one of its most savory. Kumquat’s Harvest latte has returned, a rich, textural blend of organic pumpkin, butternut squash and sweet potato. A house-made purée of these autumnal tubers and gourds forms the base of this latte, which is only served hot and with oat milk. Garnished with roasty, toasty sunflower seeds, the Harvest is slightly dense, nutty, rich and earthy all at once, and feels transportive to cool weather and crunchy leaves even during an L.A. heatwave.
La Colombe
Beverly Hills Coffee $
(Danielle Dorsey/Los Angeles Times)
The Philadelphia-founded coffee chain is known for its frothy draft latte, and this fall you can take advantage of that convenience with a pumpkin spice draft latte (available with whole or oat milk) or canned pumpkin spice latte, both made with real pumpkin puree. With a muted taste, the draft latte is perfect for those who prefer a more mild pumpkin flavor. Also new this fall is the caramel apple latte, available canned or you can add the flavor to your regular coffee or matcha order.
Laidrey
Agoura Hills Coffee $
(Danielle Dorsey/Los Angeles Times)
The Tarzana coffee cart that Gacia Tachejian founded in 2021 has since expanded to three locations in Encino, Tarzana and Agoura Hills. The cafe partners with woman-led farms to source sustainably harvested, seasonal coffee that’s meticulously roasted in house, and makes a fan-favorite breakfast burrito alongside a lineup of classic coffee drinks. This fall, Laidrey is offering a pumpkin spice latte with house-made pumpkin syrup and a pumpkin spice cream top if you order it over ice, as well as a rich salted maple pancake espresso or matcha latte, with a house-made vanilla cloud cream top, maple spice syrup and sea salt and the refreshing jasmine mist, with sparkling water, ceremonial grade matcha, jasmine tea foam and gets topped with jasmine tea and crispy brown rice.
Loose Cannon
Glendale Coffee $
(Stephanie Breijo/Los Angeles Times)
This new cafe at the border of Glendale and Montrose is already a neighborhood stalwart, and its first fall drinks already feel like they’ve been part of L.A. autumn for years. Loose Cannon’s kitchen and coffee teams work together to build their pumpkin latte, which is meant to taste like pumpkin pie in a cup. It begins with roasted pumpkin purée and a house brown sugar syrup with warming spices, then includes espresso and milk of your choice, a salted maple cold foam and, finally, a sprinkling of graham cracker crumble with roasted hazelnuts. For the non-pumpkin crowd there’s the Marlowe, an iced cortado topped with that creamy, just-salted maple cream; the fall tonic, available with either espresso or matcha, involves a complex, lightly savory house syrup made with fresh sage, honey and peppercorn. Pair these with fall-ingredient yogurt bowls, porridges and more.
Mad Lab
Downtown L.A. Coffee $
(Stephanie Breijo/Los Angeles Times)
Mad Lab founder Andrew Sinclair takes his coffee seriously — even, or especially, when it comes to themed drinks and seasonal specials. Riffing on the natural fig notes found in the local chain’s Ethiopian Dolly Blend, he devised the Figgy Pudding: a complex latte, served hot or cold, that tastes and feels as though you’re slipping from early autumn and into the holiday season. It starts with a house-made syrup built on dried figs, vanilla, maple sugar and demerara, Dolly espresso, choice of milk and an optional maple-scented, dairy-free meringue topping. Sinclair’s new and refreshing Wintermint drink — available hot or iced — also bridges fall into winter by tinging ceremonial-grade matcha with mint and, if desired, mocha. Find both drinks across Mad Lab’s four locations: the new downtown flagship, the Hollywood walk-up window, and at the cafes in Culver City and Mid-City.
mu.sō coffee
West Adams Coffee $
(Danielle Dorsey/Los Angeles Times)
Opened in early 2025 in West Adams, mu.so is short for music society, reflecting a mission to create a space that merges coffee culture with music and community. That means you can always count on a vibey playlist and artist types hanging out in the narrow interior or light-dappled courtyard, plus a lineup of classic coffee and matcha drinks alongside seasonally changing options. This autumn, the cafe is adding a handful of new beverages that venture outside of the usual pumpkin to include a honey cardamom latte, an apple pie latte, an espresso cream top mocha and an espresso cream top coconut water. All syrups are made in house, the house milk is Straus Organic and real honey and maple syrup are used when the recipe calls for it.
Nam Coffee
Chinatown Vietnamese Coffee $
(Danielle Dorsey/Los Angeles Times)
The Vietnamese coffee shop and roaster that grew out of owner Vince Nguyen’s Orange County home has since grown to locations in East Hollywood and Chinatown, serving the same specialty drinks featuring Vietnam-grown beans, including Vietnamese egg coffee and pandan and banana lattes, as well as pastries. For the fall season, the coffee shop has two Vietnamese-inspired takes on the classic pumpkin spice latte, including a pumpkin spice Viet latte with Vietnamese coffee, house-made pumpkin spice puree and pumpkin cream top, with Saigon cinnamon sprinkled on top. Order the pumpkin spice cream latte if you prefer regular coffee instead.
Reu Cafe
Hawthorne Guatemalan $
(Melody Xu/Los Angeles Times)
For just over a year in Hawthorne, this family-run cafe has been serving breakfast all-day bites authentic to their Guatemalan background, generating buzz over their breakfast chapin, garnachas, shucos and pepian de gallina. But their coffee and matcha beverages are not to miss, with plenty of colorful drinks sweetened with cold foams and unique syrups. Highlights of this year’s fall drink menu include of course its pumpkin spice latte, which can be ordered hot or iced. Also popular has been its horchata latte sweetened with pumpkin spice syrup; a cookie butter latte topped with vanilla cold foam and plenty of cookie crumble; or the Pumpkin Cloud, an iced Americano topped with pumpkin cold foam.
Thank You Coffee
Chinatown Coffee $
(Stephanie Breijo/Los Angeles Times)
Thank You Coffee’s Kabocha Squash Latte, or KSL, has garnered a cult fandom over the years. The gourmet, Asian-inspired take on the pumpkin-spice originator is made with fresh squash and house-made syrup, and it will return to the Chinatown and Anaheim locations in early November. Until then, and finding a home in the newly opened Chinatown space, are two new seasonal lattes. The cozy apple latte (pictured) is fragrant, comforting and available through November, made with a house syrup involving cold-pressed apple juice, green tea, sour plum powder, ginger, cardamom and more. It’s topped with a dash of even more sour plum powder, which gives the effect of tart green apples on the nose and tongue. The sweet corn latte, inspired by cornbread, is a sweet-savory mix of brown butter, malted milk powder, annatto seed and beyond, and can be found through October.
Verve Coffee Roasters
Beverly Grove Café $
(Melody Xu/Los Angeles Times)
Expanding from its flagship Santa Cruz locations to L.A.’s Arts District, Manhattan Beach, West Hollywood and Beverly Grove in the 2010s, Verve may be a true child of the California coast. But traditional autumnal flavors are not lost across its West Coast cafes, where fall enthusiasts have plenty of options on its seasonal menu decked out with pumpkin and apple cider and black sugar. Perhaps you’ll enjoy the pumpkin pie, sweetened with real pumpkin, warming spices and a generous graham cracker crumble sprinkled atop its cold foam, especially because it can be ordered as an espresso or matcha based latte. Or opt for a ginger beer sweetened with apple cider syrup and adorned with black sugar cold foam; an espresso tonic with ripe blackberries earthy sage; an espresso con panna with black sugar cold foam, raw sugar and warming spices.
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