Taste Test: Pumped Up

The snow is starting to stick and finals are upon the horizon. The prospect of leaving your room without long underwear is enough to put an extra skip into anyone’s step. But before we fully commit to hibernating for the season, there’s a delicious seasonal food worth embracing — all things pumpkin. From Halloween to Christmas, the festive squash is completely and utterly in vogue. Here are a couple pumpkin-flavored confections this side of Evanston, ranging from dreadful to delicious.

Bennison’s Bakery, 1000 Davis Street, $1.00
Definitely the cheapest pumpkin-flavored treat that you’ll find in town, this Bennison’s donut, unfortunately, tastes just like its price — cheap. With a dry banana bread texture, the “pumpkin donut” (the only thing that makes it a pumpkin donut is the fact that the bakery decided to call it that and market it as such) tastes simply like deep-fried batter coated in a thin layer of sickeningly sweet orange-colored frosting. The color is supposed to convince you that it tastes — or looks — like pumpkin, but that simply isn’t the case.

Einstein Bros Bagels, 1745 Sherman Avenue, $2.74
Einstein usually carries a scrumptious-sounding pumpkin bagel. Unfortunately, “pumpkin season” is apparently over. Before Thanksgiving has even come and gone in all of its pie-gorging glory. Right. Pumpkin muffins, however, do not adhere to this seasonal rule. Alas, they were sold out, so Einstein’s only pumpkin offering at the moment is a plain bagel with flavored cream cheese in a patently gross shade of orange. Despite the unsettling hue, the cream cheese actually has a recognizable taste, but it’s of honey, not pumpkin.

Cold Stone Creamery, 1611 Sherman Avenue, $3.57
If you can bear the cold, and, more importantly, the strange glances you’ll receive from passersby, then go for it! Cold Stone’s pumpkin ice cream is the real deal. The treat fuses an authentic pumpkin flavor with a graham cracker crust aftertaste. You can taste the Sweet Cream flavor somewhere in the mix, which lends that kick of Cool Whip-like creaminess that any good pumpkin dessert deserves. Plus, the concoction’s pleasant pastel shade is a relief after the garishly orange goodies you’ll encounter when pining for pumpkin at Einstein and Bennison’s.

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