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Pumpkin spice still owns plenty of North Carolina coffee cups, but this fall, cinnamon, cookie butter, baked apple and even carefully fermented beans are making a persuasive case for sharing the season.

Fall Gets a Bigger Flavor Vocabulary

There was a time when autumn coffee meant one thing: pumpkin spice, usually appearing sometime around Labor Day and hanging around until peppermint took over. Pumpkin has not gone anywhere, but North Carolina coffee shops are giving fall a much wider vocabulary.

At Summit Coffee in Davidson, the seasonal menu reads more like a tour through the baking aisle than a one-note tribute to pumpkin. The Pumpkin Pie Latte and Pumpkin Chai cover the classics, while Cookie Butter and Red Velvet lattes move things in a different direction. Pumpkin-spice and cookie-butter cold foams give iced-coffee drinkers a way into the season without pretending September in North Carolina requires a sweater.

The autumn shift goes deeper than flavored drinks. Summit has also released Sweater Weather, bringing the seasonal idea into the beans themselves. For anyone who wants to see where those coffees begin, Summit Coffee’s Basecamp offers another look at the roaster behind the cup.

Raleigh takes a quieter approach at lucettegrace. The pastry shop offers autumn spice drip coffee along with an autumn spice café au lait, proving fall flavor does not necessarily need whipped cream, a syrup pump and a name long enough to require its own line on the menu.

Sometimes the Coffee Does the Work

Then there is Black & White Coffee Roasters in Raleigh, where seasonal flavors can come from the coffee itself rather than what gets stirred into it.

Its current Esteban Zamora Cinnamon Anaerobic from Costa Rica carries tasting notes the roaster compares to baked apples, dried orange and sweet horchata. That puts cinnamon and fruit squarely in autumn territory while showing just how far specialty coffee has moved beyond the idea that seasonal flavor has to come from added syrup.

Pumpkin still gets top billing, and probably will for a while. But North Carolina coffee drinkers now have cookie butter, cinnamon, apple, baking spice and distinctive roasted coffees crowding onto the same marquee.

The calendar can declare fall whenever it likes. Around here, the coffee shops tend to make the announcement first.

For more places to keep your cup full across the state, browse the Guide to North Carolina directory at https://www.guidetonc.com/coffeehouses.