With fall being in full swing the pumpkin and caramel foods are taking over the shelves in stores.

We tried some of these things found in our local grocery store in order to determine what is worth the fall enjoyment.

Coffee Mate Pumpkin Spice Latte:

Kiplinger: Somehow super sweet and overpoweringly bitter at the same time. The latte tasted extremely watered down and the aftertaste would not leave (even after water). This was my least favorite of the group. 

Dingeldein: This tasted like if you put instant coffee and pumpkin cereal into a jug of water, mixed it up, and served it. It was bland and not very sweet and had a weird powdery texture.

Compton: Tasted like cereal at first, and not in a good way. It was not very flavorful, and was watered down. It has a bad aftertaste. (I finished the remains and it did make me hyper.)

Klein: Gross! I am an avid coffee drinker, and to be honest I can’t even be sure that was coffee. It tasted like dirt water, but somehow also watered down and with a bile aftertaste. 0/10, do not recommend. 

Pillsbury Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Rolls: 

Kiplinger: They smelled delicious. However, they had little to no flavor, only slight hints of pumpkin spice. The icing was the only thing that made them taste sweet. 

Dingeldein: They tasted decent. The pumpkin spice wasn’t super strong and they weren’t very sweet but it’s hard to ruin a cinnamon roll.

Compton: Smelled a lot better than they tasted. They still had good flavor, but not as much as expected based on how they smelled. Didn’t have very much pumpkin spice flavor, and was underwhelming, the texture was good though.

Klein: There wasn’t enough flavor, like at all. Kinda cardboard-esque. Still edible, but it’s not something I would willingly eat more of. 3/10 (Maybe I’m biased though, because I don’t really like cinnamon rolls anyways).

Pillsbury Pumpkin Spice Cookies:

• Raw: 

Kiplinger: Definitely flavourful. White chocolate chips added to the sweetness and added a little crunch. 

Dingeldein: Very good. Super sweet and pumpkin spice flavored.

Compton: Good texture, It was a bit grainy because of the sugar, but it wasn’t a bad grainy. The flavor was amazing and tasted strongly of pumpkin spice.

Klein: Yummyyummy. I’m a sucker for cookie dough. I didn’t quite like the white chocolate chips, but the dough itself was good. Sort of tasted like a pumpkin chai? 7/10

• Cooked:

Kiplinger: Still very sweet. Overbaked and crunchy. I didn’t mind the crunchiness, but the dryness was not good. 

Dingeldein: Overbaked and crunchy but at no fault of pillsbury. They were very good and had just the right amount of pumpkin spice to be flavorful but not overpowering.

Compton: I overbaked both kinds of cookies, causing them to be crunchy and dry. Would have been good if not overcooked. They did lose a decent amount of their flavor after being baked for some reason.

Klein: It was sort of good? Overbaked, yes, but the flavor was still there. Not as good as the dough and the white chocolate didn’t melt, bringing it down a step. 4/10

Pillsbury Caramel Apple Cookies:

• Raw: 

Kiplinger: Really good. Could taste a lot of caramel, but wasn’t really getting much apple. Slightly grainy because of the caramel chunks. 

Dingeldein: Very good. It was very caramelly and not much apple. They were very sweet and the chunks of caramel were soft and chewy.

Compton: Favorite of the foods tried. The texture was amazing with the chunks of apple and caramel. They were very sweet, and on the verge of being too much, but they were not. The flavor was amazing although it did have more caramel flavor than apple. 

Klein: These should not exist. Personally, a CRUNCHY chunk of apple in my cookie dough was not very appetizing. Might have gagged. Plus the dough tasted like plain flour. wouldratherhaveacaramelappleinstead/10 

• Cooked:

Kiplinger: Surprisingly still good even though they were also overbaked. Again, I liked the crunchiness, but I couldn’t taste the apple at all. 

Compton: Were still really good even though they were hard and crunchy. They lost some flavor after being cooked, but not as much as the Pumpkin Spice cookies.

Klein: Maybe a bit better? Still very bad, though. Maybe they would’ve been better if warmed. I just don’t have much faith in them. 2/10

Chobani Pumpkin Harvest Crisp Yogurt Flip:

Kiplinger: Tasted like an overly sour key lime pie. Yuck. The only redeemable part of this was “crunch”.

Dingeldein: The toppings and crunchy bits were good but the yogurt was awful. It was oddly sour and tasted like a rotting key lime pie. (Katherine doesn’t like yogurt.)

Compton: Very good flavor. The yogurt was a little sour, but it was Greek yogurt. The toppings were very crunchy and good.

Klein: EW. I really like chobani normally, but honestly this tasted like hand sanitizer. (I suggested that maybe it was expired, but alas, it was not.) Kind of wished it was expired, because there is no other justifiable reason as to why it was that bad. 0/10. Crunchy bits were mushy… 

Thomas Pumpkin Spice Bagels:

Kiplinger: Still soft and chewy. You could taste the pumpkin spice flavor. My preference would be for my bagel to be toasted. Plain cream cheese would be so good with this. 

Dingeldein: These would pair nicely with a good cream cheese. The flavor wasn’t super overpowering but it was still noticeable. They weren’t too sweet or too bland.

Compton: Amazing texture, soft and chewy like a good bagel should be. The flavor was just right and not too subtle or strong. Very enjoyable.

Klein: It tasted exactly as I’d expect.. Would probably be better if cooked, but uh.. This group isn’t quite bright enough to think of that. I’m not a fan of uncooked bagels, so 5/10.

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Klein: I would like to never eat pumpkin spice again. 

Compton: I provided all the items 🙂

In conclusion, the pumpkin cookie dough and bagel were the most worth it.

The only complaint about the bagel was that it wasn’t toasted and needed cream cheese.

Everyone enjoyed the pumpkin spice cookie dough and it was definitely the overall winner.