At long last, the fall season is here. The changing of the leaves. Weekend football games. Trips to the pumpkin patch. Sweater weather?
7 Corners Coffee has just introduced four new seasonal drinks that reflect its excitement for this cozy time of year: Pumpkin Latte, Spiced Pear Latte, Blackberry Matcha and Apple Pie Affogato.
To many, the coffee menu begins with the Pumpkin Latte, a warm and inviting classic with flavors most symbolic of fall. 7 Corners Coffee honors this tradition but with its own unique spin.
“Ours is a spice-forward recipe including cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and nutmeg,” says Andrew Hinrichs, director of customer experience. The key, he adds, is incorporating the spices, and oat milk, as ingredients of the housemade syrup. “The oat milk adds a really nice texture, and since the spices are already in the syrup, there’s really no need for a garnish at the end. Adding a little vanilla helps balance the spices.”
The Blackberry Matcha was partly inspired by a barista back in the spring. “We were using the blackberry syrup and one of our baristas was talking about how we should use it with matcha,” says General Manager Natalie Bagwell. “It’s meant to be iced. People have been ordering the drink just because of how it looks.” The blackberry syrup, steeped with dried orange peel, adds a bright and fruity color when shaken with milk and ice. Topped with a layer of matcha, the drink’s beautiful presentation has already begun catching the eye of patrons looking for a final iced drink of the season. Even cold brew fans can add blackberry syrup for a cool, refreshing treat.
Apples in September and October may bring to mind hot apple cider or apple cider donuts for many. However, Hinrichs calls the Spiced Pear Latte an homage to “a fall flavor that I feel has been overlooked, especially when people might be thinking of apples.” The syrup is cooked as a pear cider, where pears, brown sugar, cinnamon, and orange peel are boiled down and strained. This produces a candied pear-like quality that, paired with a Costa Rican espresso from locally-owned Silverbird Roasting, resembles a warm blanket in a cup at any time of the day.
And for the decadent at heart, 7 Corners Coffee offers the Apple Pie Affogato, a coffee-and-dessert specialty too enticing to resist. It starts with a scoop of ice cream, followed by a warm pie filling and a crumbly top. Since affogato literally means “drowned” in Italian, the exclamation mark is a shot of espresso to literally take this Fall treat over the top. Understandably, the Apple Pie Affogato is served in a ramekin, allowing for the presentation to take full effect, even during the morning rush. “It feels like a dessert, maybe later in the day kind of thing, but we had, just the other day, a woman order one at 8:30 in the morning,” Bagwell said. “To each, his own, I guess.”
Come get your fall fix today with one of these four new drinks at 7 Corner Coffee’s Eden Prairie or downtown Minneapolis locations. Whether starting your morning with a cup to go or spending a few hours in the lobby, join us today in celebrating the start of the new season!
