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Top 3 Foods: Chocolate PhD, Pumpkin Spice Returns And Pizza

The top three food and drinks of the week include Starbucks' pumpkin spice latte, pizza and chocolate.

Top 3 Foods: Chocolate PhD, Pumpkin Spice Returns And Pizza
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​We must have been thinking with our stomachs this week, because we just kept seeing news about food and drinks popping up everywhere! From a pizza vending machine to a pretty sweet new college degree, we’ve got your food news of the week covered.

The quintessential drink of the fall is back. Even though it's almost 100 degrees outside. 

Yeah, yeah. Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spice Latte. 

The drink announced on its Twitter page — yes, there actually is a Pumpkin Spice Latte Twitter page — that it would be “back from vacay” 18 days after August 7th. For all of you who just don't want to do the math right now, that means August 25.

And you know, maybe you're right — it does seem kind of early, huh? 

Foodbeast pointed out that even though school is starting back up, summer isn’t technically over until September 23rd

"The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon": “Because nothing says summer refreshment like a piping hot cup of caffeinated squash.”

Clearly Jimmy Fallon hasn’t been one of the 29,000 people who’ve tweeted about the drink.

Next up, we’ve got pizza. And yes that pie did just slide out of a vending machine.

This vending machine was created by Pompei’s pizzeria, according to Lifehacker. The vending machine concept took two years to create and officially debuted earlier this week in Australia. It’s the first of its kind for the country.

People wanting a slice have two options: either margherita or hot salami. The pizzas are 11-inches and cost $12.

The Age explained how the machine works. The pizzas are partially cooked in the pizzeria before an employee places them in the vending machine. When a customer orders a pizza, the machine places it in a self-contained oven and finishes the baking process. 

Creator George Pompei told CNET, “The oven is really cutting-edge. … it’s actually able to replicate what goes [on in] a wood-fired oven.”

There are already pizza vending machines in the United States and Europe, but The Age says this is believed to be the first time traditional artisan pizzas have been dispensed from a machine. Man, I wish I didn't already eat that piece – I'm hungry already. 

Can we finish this please? Geeze. Finally, we’re ending with dessert. Well, kind of.

KTBC: “Cambridge is offering a sweet gig. They’re looking for a student for their multidisciplinary PhD on chocolate program.”

OK, how awesome does that sound? But sadly, students won’t just be eating chocolate all day in class.

According to a posting on the University’s website, the three-and-a-half year program is set to start in January 2015. The program will look to increase the melting point of chocolate. 

The program is only open to European nationals, as The Telegraph pointed out. 

And Metro says candidates need to have already completed four years of undergraduate school in a scientific field.

We hope you don’t mind but after talking about all that food, we’re now both starving! And hey, maybe you should get something to snack on too. You totally deserve it after watching this Top 3.

This video contains images from Matt DeTurck / CC BY NC ND 2.0​ and John Loo / CC BY 2.0​.