Pumpkin Spice Latte season came earlier than ever this year – a full month before the actual first day of fall. For some people, news of the early autumn menu arrival elicited a frenzy of excitement. Others couldn’t care less. And then there were those of us who were already on the waitlist for a different drop: the Diaspora Co. Pumpkin Spice blend.
I’m not someone who often stands in line for the next cool thing — online or IRL — but the Diaspora spice blend warrants this level of anticipation. Its waitlist isn’t some kind of marketing ploy, either. The release of Diaspora’s pumpkin spice doesn’t depend on corporate America arbitrarily picking a date; it’s a matter of waiting for the workers of 21 farms across India and Sri Lanka to finish harvesting, milling, blending, and packaging their spices. Which is why Diaspora’s pumpkin spice makes the world’s best pumpkin spice latte: it’s prepared with the freshest, most flavorful ingredients possible.
While the makers of other pumpkin spice products keep their recipes secret or hidden behind the generic term “natural flavors” (i.e. highly processed chemical additives), Diaspora is transparent and specific. Their blend contains wild cinnamon quills, Makhir ginger, Anamalai mace, Anamalai nutmeg, Baraka green cardamom, allspice, Kandyan cloves, and Aranya white pepper — all of which are grown according to regenerative agricultural practices that prioritize human and planetary health.
On the company’s website, you can find the recipe for their Very Diaspora PSL and you can read about the spice farms — including, in some instances, the names of the farmers. This is because Diaspora sources their spices not only based on quality, but on equitability and sustainability, too. Their goal is to build an ethical international supply chain that can be traced all the way from one end to the other; as such, they are committed, per their website, to paying a living wage to those on the production side.
The spice blend is also better for my own personal budget. At $13 per container, the whole thing comes out to about the price of two PSLs at my local coffee shop and, when portioned out, equals approximately a dollar per drink.
There are plenty of ways to get more bang for your buck and enjoy this autumnal specialty besides sprinkling it in your coffee. The benefit of having the flavors of fall in powdered form is that you can add it to just about any food or beverage. Obviously it is ideal for pumpkin pie and other baked goods, like cakes and cookies, but it can also make the transition to aperitivo as a pumpkin spice espresso martini or work its way into savory dishes like spiced squash pasta with pumpkin seed gremolata.
All of these factors contribute to why Diaspora Co.’s blend is my favorite pumpkin spice out there. But above all, the real reason is that it simply tastes better.
Elena Valeriote is a writer of stories about food, farming, culture, and travel that explore the connection between people and place. Her work has appeared in publications including Gastro Obscura, Modern Farmer, and Life & Thyme.
