TOUS les JOURS' Fall Beverages Are Cool: An Exclusive Interview

Originally Published October 16, 2024 as part of Joe Nasta's Seattle Foodie Poet coverage for National Dessert Day:

You've heard of Pumpkin Spice Lattes, but have you ever tried Pumpkin Spice Matcha? The cafe and bakery chain TOUS les JOURS has you covered with unique fall beverages. They're pretty cool -- there's a few iced options you can choose from.

I was lucky enough to chat with one of the craft beverage specialists behind the brand's seasonal lineup: Beverage Research & Development Manager Alex Hager, who won the “U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits” category at the U.S. Coffee Championships in 2022 (per Food & Beverage Magazine). The interview was conducted in writing. Read our conversation below.

Joe: Hi Alex! Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions about the fall beverage offerings at TOUS les JOURS. I’m really honored to talk to such an accomplished barista and craft beverage specialist.

The menu has been featuring the Iced Pumpkin Spice Matcha, Butter Pecan Latte, and Ice Pumpkin Spice Delight drinks since August varying by location. I know it might be hard to pick especially since they’re all so delicious in their own way, but I have to ask: Which one is your go-to?

Alex: I love variety so I tend to rotate between them depending on my mood, but my most consistent go-to is probably the Pumpkin Spice Matcha. I am a sucker for subtle flavor pairings and a big matcha drinker so the combo of my favorite seasonal spices and matcha is always hard to pass up. The Pumpkin Spice Delight is great when I am in the mood for something a little more coffee forward and a little less sweet, but I still want that hit of fall spices, and the Butter Pecan Latte is my go-to sweet treat for the end of the week. The crunchy toffee bits on top never fail to put a smile on my face.

Joe: I’m really enticed by the Iced Pumpkin Spice Matcha, which seems like an unexpected flavor pairing. How did you come up with that?

Alex: Matcha is a very popular menu item for us, so I am always looking for ways to incorporate it into seasonal menu items. As a pumpkin spice fan myself, the first time I tasted the pairing of the two I knew that I had to work the combo into our fall menu somehow. The challenge with subtle flavor pairings is getting the balance right so that you can taste the pumpkin spice without overpowering the matcha. Incorporating the pumpkin spice into the oat cream turned out to be a great way to do that.

Joe: I’m fascinated by these exciting seasonal offerings and how they enter the world – I used to work as a recipe editor and found the collaborative process of generating an idea readers would love, developing the recipe, producing engaging content around it to be so fun! How do you develop these drinks? Do you have a team or a test kitchen? Do you start with the idea and come up with the recipe, or is there a more experimental approach? What’s your favorite part of the process?

Alex: It varies from drink to drink and season to season, but it is usually a combination of experimentation and having a specific idea or goal that I am working towards, whether that be a drink style, a specific flavor, or to use a particular ingredient like the oat cream used in our Pumpkin Spice Delight and Pumpkin Spice Matcha. I am lucky enough to have a test café setup in our office to work out of, and a great group of colleagues on our Marketing and R&D team to field ideas and test new drinks and recipes with.

Joe: I noticed there’s two cold beverage offerings in the lineup. It seems like a pretty cool take on the season, which many might consider a cozy time to curl up with a steaming mug. I live in Seattle and we’ve had a mix of our classic moody weather and very sunny days with only a slight breeze this autumn, so something chilled with a pumpkin flavor seems perfect. What inspired the focus on iced beverages? Do you prefer to enjoy hot or iced drinks, usually?

Alex: As a former Seattleite myself, I really appreciate a warm beverage on a chilly overcast day and am much more of a hot coffee drinker (even on sweltering summer days here in Southern California), so it is a little funny that I ended up creating so many iced drinks for the fall. That said, even in the winter iced drinks are a very steady seller for us, and I think it shows that many customers are looking for delicious, iced beverages all year round now, so I try not to limit myself to drinks that can be made hot when developing Fall and Winter beverages.

Joe: The best part of fall is the special traditions we have with friends and family. I mean, who doesn’t love carving jack-o’-lanterns, apple picking, getting lost in a corn maze, or making a holiday feast with loved ones! What’s your personal favorite fall tradition and what activities would you pair with each drink TOUS les JOURS is offering this season?

Alex: My neighborhood goes all out on decorating houses and trick-or-treating, so Halloween has become one of my absolute favorite fall traditions.  I would pair handing out candy and trick-or-treating with our Pumpkin Spice Delight which is a little less sweet and will go perfectly with all that trick-or-treating candy. The Pumpkin Spice Matcha is a drink I would pair with another one of my favorite fall activities, a nice hike to see the changing colors of the leaves. It is a drink that, like the leaves, changes with each sip, going from the sweet and creamy pumpkin oat cream to the refreshing matcha latte below. As for the Butter Pecan Latte, that is the perfect sweet treat to enjoy with family or friends on Thanksgiving morning before you get started preparing that big feast.

Joe: TOUS les JOURS has a scrumptious selection of artisan baked goods – I recently savored the Yuzu Pie and Cloud Cake to celebrate National Dessert Day in Seattle – that your seasonal drink menus pair well with. There’s also some special Halloween cakes and eclairs coming later this month that I’m stoked to try.

When you’re developing a seasonal menu, do you think about which pastries on the menu your creations might complement? Do you use that as a jumping off point, or does it come up later in the process? Are there any pairings you suggest?

Alex: Much like the development process itself, it varies each time. Sometimes there is a specific flavor or ingredient being used for a bread or cake that will spark an idea for a drink. Sometimes creating a particular pairing of drink and bakery item is the goal from the start, and sometimes a pairing idea comes up later in the process as we are tasting the drink or creating the marketing materials. In the case of our Fall seasonal menu, the Croissant Flattie and the beverages were developed separately without a pairing in mind, but the sweet and buttery flattie just happens to go perfectly with the Pumpkin Spice Delight.

Joe: Final question. Thank you so much again for your thoughtful answers; I’m delighted to share this with everyone! This one is more open-ended and not just focused on the fall menu. What’s the specialty beverage you’ve developed for TOUS les JOURS that you’re most proud of?

Alex: It is hard to pick just one as there are quite a few, like our Ube Latte and Tiramisu Latte, that make me smile when I see people sharing pictures of them on social media. I love creating drinks that both look great and taste great! But if I must pick just one it would probably be our Honey Lavender Matcha Latte that was a part of our 2023 Spring beverage launch. It was a case of developing a beverage that I really wanted to drink myself. I am a big fan of both Matcha and Lavender and I was certain they would taste great together. It has been super cool to see it become a lasting hit for Tous Les Jours, as well as to see some big-name brands even picking up the flavor pairing.

New Halloween cakes and eclairs at TOUS les JOURS

For the Halloween season, TOUS les JOURS has a special line of cakes to help us celebrate between October 17 and 31. The flavors featured in the "Spooky Delights" lineup include the Spooky Delights three-layer cake with cream cheese frosting, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Cookies N Cream Mousse, Halloween Cloud, and Mini Pumpkin Spice. Vanilla and chocolate eclairs are also featured for the holiday.