Sip your pumpkin spice latte straight from the pumpkin at this business
By Kara Burnett
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BALTIMORE (WMAR) — At The Smoothie Garden in Federal Hill, customers are getting a latte to talk about.
“Let’s put the latte inside the pumpkin. The customers love it. They travel 45 minutes to an hour,” said Montana Logan, owner of The Smoothie Garden.
The seasonal favorite, called “Pumpkin Spice Everything Nice,” has become one of the shop’s most popular menu items.
Each drink is made by carving out a small pumpkin, filling it with ice and the shop’s signature pumpkin spice latte, then topping it off with whipped cream and even a mini pie.
“They say it tastes very refreshing,” Logan said. “It’s the best latte they’ve ever had.”
And it’s not just Baltimore getting in on the craze. Data from Nielsen shows Americans spend about half a billion dollars every year on pumpkin spice products.
Videos of creative spins on the drink, from customers bringing their own pumpkins to Starbucks to lines stretching for hours at The Barn in Long Island, have flooded TikTok this season.
Logan says she noticed no one in Baltimore was offering the trend, so she decided to bring it here.
“There wasn’t any place in Baltimore doing it,” she said. “So I thought, let’s do something nobody else is doing. That’s my goal, to be different and stand out.”
It’s not the first time The Smoothie Garden has gone viral. Over the summer, their watermelons and pineapples filled with Italian ice took over social media. Next up, Logan says, she’s offering something for the matcha lovers.
“Matcha in the pumpkins. Yes, matcha in the pumpkins,” she said.
Creative trends like these have helped keep business flowing through the colder months, when sales tend to slow down. Logan is also celebrating just over a year since opening the smoothie shop, though it wasn’t her original plan. Logan was searching for a space to open another daycare center.
“Surprisingly, I was looking for a childcare center and this fell into my lap,” she said. “I love making smoothies, so why not open up a smoothie shop for the community.”
Looks like that leap of faith turned out to be pretty fruitful.
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