4 Starbucks Ordering Tips For A 10x Better PSL This Fall

As summer 2026 nears its end, pumpkin spice season is already upon us, and fast food coffee shops have begun rolling out their new line of pumpkin-themed drinks and snacks for the year. However, the most notable of these items is undoubtedly the pumpkin spice latte. The classic drink has plenty of fans who believe it is perfect as is, but we believe it can be made even better with a few ordering tricks that vary by establishment. While we already looked into a few tips for Dunkin's PSLs, it's Starbucks' turn to get the same treatment.

Starbucks — the company responsible for making pumpkin spice lattes so popular in the 2000s — released its autumn menu on August 25 with the iced and hot PSLs as the star attractions. Considering Starbucks is known for its customizable menu, upgrading the signature drinks can be done in many different ways. Nevertheless, we stuck to just the four tips we believe will make the biggest positive impacts on your hot and iced PSLs. Each upgrade can be implemented both on the Starbucks app and in person, making things as simple and easy as possible for those who want to try the best pumpkin spice latte they can buy.

While there are several types of mix-ins to choose from at Starbucks, syrups are often considered among the most pivotal for shaping your drink's taste. Starbucks' syrups are known for being thinner and having a larger variety than its sauces, with people constantly mixing and matching different syrups with different drinks across the menu. Of the many syrup flavors to choose from, horchata is likely the most enticing one to add to your pumpkin spice latte. The horchata syrup first appeared at Starbucks back in May 2025 as a part of the chain's Iced Horchata Oatmilk Shaken Espresso, and has since become an integral syrup used in drinks across the menu.

The three integral flavors in the horchata syrup — vanilla, cinnamon, and rice — pair incredibly well with pumpkin spice because they are similarly warm, sweet, and rich. Plus, pumpkin spice horchatas and horchata-flavored PSLs are already quite popular outside of Starbucks; you can find homemade recipes of each drink online quite easily, and many fans of both believe they are a match made in heaven. For a strong balance of each flavor, adding either the same amount of horchata syrup as there is pumpkin sauce — four shots in the grande and six in the venti — or one shot less will likely get you the best results.

It goes without saying that lattes are, in large part, defined by the style of milk, as the style of coffee is made using more cream than espresso. At Starbucks specifically, lattes have at least 6 ounces of milk or cream for every shot of espresso in the drink. For this reason, choosing the ideal milk for your pumpkin spice latte is a crucial step when customizing your drink, and we believe that either half-and-half or heavy cream is your best bet. This milk swap is already known as one of the best ways to get the creamiest Starbucks Frappuccino possible (alongside ordering them double-blended), but it is arguably just as impactful when used in a PSL.

The most notable reason cream is a great choice for Starbucks PSLs specifically comes down to texture more than it does taste; I've found that the standard Starbucks PSL's texture is too thin, a consistency that doesn't benefit the rich beverage all that much. This is primarily because Starbucks uses 2% milk in its lattes by default. On the other hand, many homemade PSL recipes use half-and-half — or, at the very least, whole milk — for the drink, but Starbucks sticks with its standard latte makeup each year that the seasonal item is available. So, while adding either heavy cream or half-and-half will be a $0.70 upcharge (depending on where you live) compared to the standard 2% milk, it is well worth it for the creamier texture that the dairy products can provide to your latte.

Next up, we have another dairy swap, but this time, it's about what's added on top of your pumpkin spice latte rather than what's inside of it. While whipped cream is an iconic component of Starbucks' PSLs and has been for many years, it's not actually the best topping to use for the drink. Opting for cold foam rather than whipped cream on either your hot or iced PSL is a tremendous choice. Not only does cold foam last longer without melting and separating from your coffee, but it also arguably imparts more flavor to your drink than whipped cream.

Starbucks offers many different versions of the topping. While the pumpkin cream cold foam — an ingredient featured in non-latte menu items like the Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew and the Iced Pumpkin Cream Matcha — is a no-brainer for the PSL, you can also experiment with popular new cold foams at Starbucks like the brown sugar cold foam. Pecan or horchata cold foam would also work well with the drink, bringing new, complementary flavors into the equation. Nevertheless, these strong qualities are a big reason why Starbucks has placed greater focus on its cold foam across the board in recent years, and for just $1.25 extra, the topping can serve as a massive upgrade to your PSL.

Finally, we have an upgrade that makes good use of Starbucks' tea alongside the classic pumpkin spice latte. Starbucks recently introduced its new chai tea blend in March 2026, and while the tea concentrate has been fairly polarizing, asking for it in your hot PSL is a surefire way to get a tasty drink with nuanced flavors. The chai concentrate has an incredibly impactful taste due to the cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, black pepper, and honey included in its recipe. All these warm notes bind together to complement pumpkin spice.

Starbucks already proved chai and pumpkin spice are a great pairing with both hot and iced pumpkin spice chai beverages on its fall menu this year. However, both of these items don't include espresso and are believed to have less than the roughly 8 ounces of milk in a grande iced latte. For these reasons, the best way to get a "dirty chai" version of the autumn drink is to add the chai concentrate directly into the PSL. If you want just a hint of all the flavors chai provides, just one or two pumps will suffice, but ordering four pumps of chai will give you a nice balance of chai and the pumpkin spice, all for just $0.80 extra per latte.