The Best Pumpkin To Use For Making Coffee And Cocktail Syrups All Season Long

As the great Barefoot Contessa herself frequently reminds perfectionist home cooks, "store-bought is fine." But sometimes, employing the extra elbow grease to make a homemade version can really yield a more dimensional, more rewarding finished result. This is certainly the case when it comes to pumpkin-flavored simple syrups, which are the perfect one-stop ingredient for elevating your go-to cold weather cocktails and coffee beverages.

Today's tip comes from Jessie-Sierra Ross, a former ballerina turned cooking and home entertaining author of "Seasons Around the Table: Effortless Entertaining with Floral Tablescapes & Seasonal Recipes." When it comes to making a knockout pumpkin-flavored syrup, says Ross, nothing performs like a sweet pumpkin. "Sweet pumpkins are my favorites for creating sauces, syrups, and purees," the author shared in an exclusive interview with Tasting Table. "This type of pumpkin is the perfect variety to choose when used as a cooked puree to sauces, but even better when it's made into a simple syrup for coffee and cocktails."

If you've never worked with one before, sweet pumpkins (aka sugar pumpkins or pie pumpkins) are physically round and much smaller than field pumpkins — roughly the size of a cantaloupe. Inside, their dense, squash-like flesh tastes rich, buttery, and mildly sweet, making it both easy to work with and packed with flavor. Cooking or baking with sugar pumpkins also makes a great excuse for swinging by your local farmers market.

To transform that raw sugar pumpkin into a seasonal syrup, Jessie-Sierra Ross explains, "Add a couple of tablespoons of sweet pumpkin puree with sugar, water, and pumpkin pie spice into a small saucepan. Set over medium high heat and stir. Allow the mixture to come to a boil and then turn off the heat." To finish, she advises, "Let the mixture steep for 10 to 15 minutes, then strain into a small glass using a fine mesh sieve. Let cool and then store in a glass jar in the fridge."

You could stir a spoonful of your homemade pumpkin syrup into an iced latte or hot oat milk chai latte for cozy comfort all season long. Or, a squeeze of this pumpkin syrup could even take a regular drip coffee to flavorful new heights. On the spiked side of the equation, you could use that rich syrup to whip up a pumpkin spice Manhattan or an autumnal Old Fashioned – two cold weather classics made even more fall-appropriate with this upgrade. 

That sweet-earthy pumpkin makes a natural complement to the spiced bourbon in the Old Fashioned or the smoky, peppery rye whiskey in the Manhattan. You could even sip the best of both worlds with a pumpkin-infused White Russian, the coffee-soaked cocktail of fall-fevered foodies' wildest dreams. Simply add a scoop of the syrup to an ice-filled shaker along with the usual vodka, Kahlúa, and heavy cream, shaking to assemble and straining to serve.