Everybody loves coffee, so much so that the majority of people can’t function without it. So, on some chilly October day, you hit up the usual Dunkin, Starbucks, Quick Check, 7/11, etc., to grab that liquid gold. When you walk up to the door you see the huge sign that says “PUMPKIN SPICE IS BACK!” How would you be feeling?
Personally, I don’t like pumpkin spice. Pumpkin spice season is the one time of year where everyone goes crazy. You get your pumpkin spice lattes with your pumpkin muffin. Dunkin takes a whole month to prepare their pumpkin spice line. A. Whole. Month. The recipes also are never the same. Every year you are always getting a different pumpkin spice drink, so why not make a flavor of the week? It would make it all that more exciting. Why can’t there be other flavors of the fall like apple, cinnamon, salted caramel, or butterscotch? It gets boring when you have the same drinks with the same flavor throughout fall. Over time the potent pumpkin flavor becomes unappetizing to some. Yeah, maybe you look forward to pumpkin spice during the summer or spring, but it starts to get boring after a week or two.
Pumpkin Spice itself isn’t even that great of a flavor. I bet you think pumpkin is a part of the drink. Wrong.. It is a common misconception thinking that pumpkin is in all these fall drinks, when in reality, it is just the spices that you associate with pumpkin. You are basically getting any other coffee drink but with “pumpkin” spices. There is also no reason for the pumpkin spice to be only one time a year. For those who love it, they have to wait a whole entire year. Imagine how the iced coffee drinkers would feel if you only made ice coffee as a summer drink or vice versa with hot coffee. You should be able to have pumpkin spice anytime.
The amount of money people spend on just pumpkin spice is also ridiculous.There is no point in buying a $7 dollar coffee drink when you can easily get coffee and the pumpkin flavoring one your own. The flavor also gets lost after a while when you get a drink from Dunkin or Starbucks as well. Most people are wasting $7 dollars on a drink that ends up being regular coffee. Even better, you can make it and drink it all year round! To add on to that high note you can be saving money too. Who doesn’t want to save money?
As a result of the popularity of pumpkin spice, companies have created outrageous items with that familiar flavoring. In 2021, Maruchen, the Ramen noodle company, came out with a not so delicious pumpkin spice flavor. Twinkies also have a pumpkin spice flavor that tastes like pure chemicals. Pumpkin spice is not only in coffee but it is in hot chocolate and eggnog as well. There are also Cheerios, granola bars, SPAM, pumpkin spice cheeses, popcorn, cookies, Oreos, marshmallows and more (the cookies are Oreos are actually kind of pretty good). They also make organic pumpkin spice kale chips! How… wonderful.
With all that said pumpkin spice is not something for everyone to go crazy over. While it does have charm and nostalgia for a lot of people, the fact it has become so mainstream in pop culture does not change the fact it is not that special. If you can make it at home, save your money, and make it year round instead!