I Tried 7 Brew's Fall Drinks — Here's What Has Me Ready For Sweater Weather And What Can Go In The Bin

When the clock strikes September, the calendar says we still have a few more weeks of summer left to enjoy. But in the minds of retail companies and restaurants, summer has been over for a while. Their leaves start to change color around early August, and everything just gets more aggressively autumnal from there. That's why I'm shocked that one of the hottest names in quick service beverages waited patiently for September 1.

7 Brew has officially joined the fall craze by pouring out five new seasonally savvy sips. The lineup reads like an autumn roll call, one that had my mouth watering before I ever even approached the rambunctious drive-thru — and coming from someone who's typically all in for summer, that's saying a lot. It covers all the fall bases with flavors of pumpkin, caramel apple, and chai mixed into coffees, energy drinks, and frozen chillers. It's enough to turn the head of even the most devoted warm-weather holdout.

But stirring together a witch's brew of flavors is one thing; how they actually taste is another. So, I committed to trying all five new 7 Brew drinks to see what kind of tastes and fall feelings they bring to the table. Time to find out if they offer a warm welcome into the season ahead.

I ordered all five new drinks through the 7 Brew app early on September 1. This included the Original Pumpkin Blondie Breve, Caramel Apple Pie Macchiato, Drizzled Apple 7 Energy, Apple Butter Chai Latte, and Pumpkin Roll Shake. Mind you, these are all on top of the cozy Pumpkin Shortbread Latte that fans are already enjoying.

I requested a small size of each beverage and ordered them all in the format they were shown in. For the latte, macchiato, and breve, that meant forgoing the hot and frozen chiller formats for an iced version. I also opted for regular flavors, rather than sugar-free flavors, and didn't make any changes to sweetness levels or ice levels. Essentially, I ignored all of 7 Brew's customization features to try each drink without any personal tinkering.

When I was finally ready to try them, I was looking for a few core things. One thing I always watch out for with drinks like these is sweetness level. With all those syrups and flavorings in the mix, things can get saccharine fast. Instead, I wanted beverages that drank smoothly, offered unique flavor combinations, and still had enough balance to get you all the way through. Of course, since they're fall drinks, I also wanted them to actually match up with the season. If they're not giving me visions of pumpkin patches, crisp mornings, and leaves crunching underfoot, then they're not doing their job.

The Blondie Breve is a 7 Brew original. For anyone unfamiliar with breves, just think of a latte, except one that uses steamed half-and-half rather than regular milk. Usually, the Blondie combines flavors of both vanilla and caramel. But this autumn, pumpkin is joining in on the fun as well.

It sounds like it has a lot going on, but this drink hits you with a very subtle PSL taste. It opens up the door to fall, though only a crack. Personally, I'm a fan of this less in-your-face approach. The lighter flavors of pumpkin mix with vanilla and espresso to form a very easy-to-drink bevvy. The caramel is less obvious, but I never really thought it was all that prominent in the original Blondie Breve, either.

To the more hardcore espresso drinkers, it's still going to be seen as sweet. But it's really not as cloying as it could have been, seeing as there are three different kinds of syrups pumped in. It also offers a creamier consistency compared to your average iced latte, just one more reason why it gets a thumbs up from me.

I was impressed that this drink came out looking exactly like the picture online. That's a fast food rarity. I was in awe of the beautiful layers, resting perfectly atop one another, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't simultaneously scared of that green slime settled at the bottom of the cup. Apparently, that's the apple butter drizzle, and the colors on top belong to a macchiato that's been laced with salted caramel flavors.

It's all supposed to add up to the liquid equivalent of a caramel apple pie, but that's not really what I was tasting. It's closer to a candied apple or even caramel apple sucker. I feel like I could have achieved a similar result by mixing a Witch's Brew Alani Nu energy drink with espresso. You definitely have to mix it to avoid getting a straight shot of green apple syrup with a strange Play-Doh-like aftertaste. Even when it's fully incorporated, though, the drink still doesn't taste all that cohesive. The apple flavoring sticks out like a sore thumb, and even the macchiato tastes more mocha than salted caramel to me. The presentation screams fall and spooky vibes, but the flavor doesn't quite get there, leaving it more trick than treat.

If I was just a wee bit scared of the green in the Caramel Apple Pie Macchiato, then consider me terrified of this radioactive-looking monster. Coffees aren't the only 7 Brew beverages getting a fall makeover. The chain has also autumn-washed an energy drink, and as you can probably tell, the flavor profile of choice was yet again green apple. The elixir also receives a caramel drizzle, and although I ordered it in a standard iced form, it's also available as a frozen chiller.

It immediately hits you with a jolt of tartness. Imagine a Red Bull that's been splashed with sour green apple flavoring, then given an extra jab of rich sweetness from the caramel. At times, it almost felt like I was drinking a glass of sour apple liqueur, and it even gave me flashbacks to green apple New Amsterdam vodka — a chapter of my college days I'd rather not revisit. It's extra sweet, extra syrupy, and there isn't enough carbonation to distract from some of those bigger flavors.

I do think there's likely a target market for this kind of beverage. It's probably the same crowd that cracks open a Monster first thing in the morning or is always seeking out high-adrenaline activities. But for me, this feels like something I shouldn't be drinking in broad daylight — or, quite frankly, at all.

Chai tends to get overlooked when fall flavors enter the conversation, but I'm glad it's made its way into this lineup. It gives us all a nice break from the usual flood of pumpkin and apple. Well, at least a partial break. The chain couldn't help but brew-ify this drink as well, adding in both green apple and white chocolate flavoring, plus an apple butter drizzle. It's sometimes also featured with whipped cream, though that wasn't automatically added to my app order.

The chai and apple components blend together to create a muted matcha shade. The color was far less alarming than the macchiato or energy drink, and the taste was significantly more inviting as well. This is a much better way to do apple. All those chai spices like cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves buddy up with the fruit for an apple crumb kind of flavor. It reminded me of a slice of diner pie made from a batch of Golden Delicious apples — sweet, mellow, and warmly spiced. The apple also tastes completely different here than it did in the other drinks, even though it's presumably made with the exact same flavorings and drizzle.

It's a sweet, sippable treat, and I like that it's a flavor combination I personally haven't seen before. It easily earns my vote as the best orchard-inspired drink I tried.

One more pumpkin pour for good measure. This one joins 7 Brew's line of shakes, meaning it mimics an ice cream-based frozen treat. It also throws in some additional ingredients that you probably weren't expecting based on the name alone. Pumpkin flavoring is joined by brown sugar cinnamon and white chocolate. Then the whipped cream on top is capped with yet another drizzle of pumpkin sauce.

If you're looking for a bigger blast of pumpkin, here it is. It's essentially like slurping up a slice of pumpkin pie, hitting all the right notes of the quintessential fall dessert. I actually found the nutmeg and clove to be stronger than the cinnamon and brown sugar. That in no way means it isn't sugary, though. There's still plenty of sweetness to go around.

As for the consistency, it's not quite as creamy or thick as a true milkshake. It lands somewhere closer to a smoothie or frozen coffee instead. The white chocolate flavoring doesn't make a huge impression on its own, but I have to believe it's adding some buttery vanilla notes in the background that help give the drink a little extra indulgence.

This new fall roster is a little bit hot, a little bit cold — in terms of tastiness, seeing as all drinks were served up cold. There are some definite wins here, and then there are a few ... acquired tastes, to put it nicely.

The misses all seem to be tied to the green apple goo that 7 Brew chose to use over and over again. It gave the energy drink an artificial sweet and sour tang that there was really no coming back from. And I don't think any amount of stirring could have made it blend with the flavors of the macchiato. The only time it made sense was when it was tamed by a healthy dose of warm chai spices. Comparatively, the two pumpkin-based drinks weren't necessarily groundbreaking, but their recipes made for pleasant sips from the first to the last. They're exactly the kind of drinks that slowly ease us into autumn — just like that first morning you step outside and realize you should have brought a jacket.

As I zipped through the 7 Brew drive-thru, I was actually asked to participate in an ongoing tally about whether or not pumpkin or apple was my preferred fall flavor. I noticed that pumpkin was already pulling ahead, and that perfectly mirrors what happened in this taste test. This season clearly belongs to pumpkin — at least it does at 7 Brew, anyway.

All five of the new fall drinks arrived at 7 Brew locations nationwide on September 1. It's all part of the chain's "Next Stop: Fall Flavor" campaign, which also comes with a few promos. These include a Jackpot Day on September 7 with special Brew Doh giveaways and National Coffee Day on September 29, when the chain will be giving out limited-edition license plate stickers. There is not currently a set end date for the fall drinks. But they are limited-time offerings, so they'll likely only be around until we start to feel another significant seasonal shift.

Most of the drinks are available in sizes of kids, small, medium, and large, but prices vary slightly from drink to drink. At my Columbus, Ohio, location, iced and hot versions of both the Original Pumpkin Blondie Breve and the Caramel Apple Pie Macchiato range from $4.65 for a kids size up to $6.50 for a large. If you want either in a frozen chiller form, that will cost you a bit extra. The iced Apple Butter Chai Latte ranges from $4.40 to $6, and again, a frozen chiller version costs extra. The Pumpkin Roll Shake is the priciest, ranging from $5.30 up to $7.50. Lastly, the Drizzled Apple 7 Energy understandably doesn't come in a kid's size, but small to large sizes range from $5.60 to $7.45.