Fall foods bring festive flavors

Creative beverages and other desserts signal autumn’s arrival

Georgia Karlson and Caleb Eldridge

October 23, 2025

As the autumn season arrives, traditional fall food flavors pop up on many menus. Fast food chains comply with the fall season while producing their own twist on food items. From the iconic pumpkin spice to candied cherry to sweet apple-flavors, the festive, limited-time foods fill the restaurant and coffee chains. These seasonal drinks and dishes are highly anticipated by the Fresno Christian community and many autumn enthusiasts.

Caleb Eldridge and Georgia Karlson took on the challenge of trying many fall foods and drinks, giving them each a ranking on a scale of one to ten, sharing the best and the worst of the foods of fall.

Dutch Bros:

Dutch Bros produces their iconic blended Rebels energy drink with a fall twist of candied cherry. This is the first year for the fall rebel, which was released in August 2025 with skyrocketing in popularity. The candied cherry with almond flavoring is a different but appetizing take on the fall season, which many consumers enjoy.

Alumnus Ben Karlson, ‘24, has been a barista for about five months and has fallen in love with the environment that Dutch Bros provides. He has noticed Dutch Bros become busier after the fall drinks have dropped.

In addition to the Candied Cherry Blended Rebel, Dutch Bros put out a seasonal fall menu of coffee drinks. (Tabitha Peters)

“From a Barista perspective, the Candied Cherry Blended Rebel is definitely a popular choice, especially among customers who like sweeter, candy-like flavors.” Karlson said. “I’ve noticed a good number of customers trying it at least once, especially those who already enjoy Rebels in general or want something new from the fall lineup.”

Eldridge doesn’t often drink energy drinks, so he had a contrary take on the fall rebel. He thinks it was a bit too sweet for his taste and would probably not get it again. Initially, it had a very potent cherry flavor and an extremely sweet aftertaste. Karlson loves cherry-flavored food and drinks, so she was anticipating this item the most. She thought that it was very sweet but absolutely delicious and she continues to order it regularly.

Karlson Rating: 7.5/10

Eldridge Rating: 6.5/10

Starbucks:

The students also reviewed drinks Starbucks, which is considered the queen of seasonal drink items. Their Pumpkin Spice Latte is something that Starbucks customers always anticipate when the fall season draws near. This drink is an espresso and steamed milk latte with their iconic pumpkin spice flavoring, topped with whipped cream and cinnamon dusting.

Eldridge doesn’t care for coffee, and Karlson is very particular about her coffee. The pumpkin flavoring was extremely powerful; we sensed the pumpkin spice felt artificial and the espresso beans felt burnt, if you’d ask us. One nice touch that we thoroughly enjoyed was the whipped cream that topped the latte; it added a sweet and creamy flavor. We believed that it was a great spin on fall, but we would not order it again if we were given the choice.

Karlson Rating: 7/10

Eldridge Rating: 6/10

The next item that is also a necessity to review is the Raccoon Cake Pop. This item debuted in 2024 and is quickly gaining popularity with Starbucks customers. With a deep gray color, the cake pop displays a cute raccoon with birthday cake filling.

Starbucks brings back their popular racoon cake pop initially introduced in Fall of 2024. (Tabitha Peters)

Recommended by Tabitha Peters, ‘26, and Vivian Cheema, ‘26, Eldridge and Karlson were enthusiastically anticipating this cake pop. Cheema and Peters look forward to every year when the Raccoon Cake Pop drops at Starbucks.

“The Raccoon Cake Pop is my top choice for sweet treats during the fall season,” Cheema said. “I enjoy the fun, artistic style used to portray the raccoon and its rich vanilla base.”

Cheema already enjoys the birthday cake pop and believes that the ears and the cute face on this one make it so much more desirable. Plus, the cake pop is bigger than the other flavors.

After Eldridge and Karlson finished their Raccoon Cake Pops, their only regret was not buying more.

Karlson Rating: 10/10

Eldridge Rating: 10/10

Crumbl:

The first dessert shop we reviewed is Crumbl Cookies. The Pumpkin Pie Crumbl Cookie was released in Thanksgiving 2020 and is in its fifth year of stardom. This Pumpkin Pie Cookie is exactly as it sounds, with a cookie crust and a pumpkin pie cream, topped with a dash of whipped cream on the top.

Eldridge was excited for the cookie, while Karlson was wary of the pumpkin pie flavor. The cookie was an enjoyable experience all around. The taste was incredibly reminiscent of a pumpkin pie, with the only difference being the sugar cookie instead of regular pie crust. The sugar cookie added a different yet delicious flavor to the taste of a normal pumpkin pie. We’d argue that the sugar cookie actually made the pumpkin pie flavor better than what a pumpkin pie would normally be.

Karlson Rating: 9/10

Eldridge Rating: 10/10

Seniors Caleb Eldridge and Georgia Karlson explore fall menu items including donuts, cookies and drinks. (Tabitha Peter)

Krispy Kreme:

The final stop in the many places to eat is Krispy Kreme. They released the new Fall Fair collection of donuts in September 2025. The most appetizing appeared to be the Caramel Churro Donut and Blue Ribbon Apple Pie Donut. The Caramel Churro donut is a powdered donut covered with churro and a caramel drizzle on top. The Blue-Ribbon Apple Pie donut is a gooey apple donut covered in caramel glaze and pie crust pieces, covered in a lattice of vanilla glaze.

The caramel donut was a bit interesting, to be honest. We expected this donut to be full of caramel and cinnamon flavor, but it was surprisingly overwhelming on the caramel side. The churro flavor was somewhat muted compared to the intense caramel flavoring. The donut was not up to the standards we anticipated.

The apple pie donut was a bit better than the caramel donut. While the donut was almost rich because of all elements of a pie, yet the apple flavoring was outweighed by its vanilla lattice and caramel flavor. Overall, it wasn’t a bad donut by any means, but it didn’t taste like an apple pie as advertised. Both donuts were dominated by caramel flavoring.

Caramel Donut:

The senior pair tried festive foods from chain places such as Dutch Bros, Starbucks, Krispy Kreme and Crumbl. (Tabitha Peters)

Karlson Review: 6.5/10

Eldridge Review 6/10

Apple Pie Donut:

Karlson Review: 7.5/10

Eldridge Review: 7.5/10

Average Overall Reviews:

Dutch Bros: 7/10

Starbucks Latte: 6.5/10

Starbucks Cake Pop: 10/10

Crumbl: 9.5/10

Krispy Kreme Caramel: 6.25/10

Krispy Kreme Apple: 7.5/10

While these are the fast-food chains we visited, there are many other local spots, including Kuppa Joy, The Well Coffeehouse, Spirit Made Cakes, Alchemist Coffee Lab or The Otherside Cafe to try delectable fall foods. We suggest that you go and try our favorite fall foods so you can enjoy the fall season to its fullest!

About the Contributors

Georgia Karlson, Journalist

First-year journalist Georgia Karlson, ’26, is eager to develop her writing skills with The Feather Online. She embraces life to the fullest—whether perfecting her forehand on the tennis court, sampling the latest ice cream flavors or hiking her favorite trails. Karlson hopes to one day work in the wine and viticulture industry, blending her passion for science with her love for people.

Caleb Eldridge, Journalist

First-year journalist and returning writer for The Feather, Caleb Eldridge, ‘26, hopes to further build his writing and journalism skills. Eldridge enjoys reading fictional books and watching the Star Wars movies, often while eating his favorite snack, Goldfish. When not at school, Eldridge can be found on the soccer field in the winter or at In-N-Out eating a good burger. Eldridge hopes to go into the field of ministry in the future.