According to Dunkin’ and Starbucks, it’s that time of year again–pumpkin spice season! It’s time to bring out the sweaters and your scarves, folks, because it is getting chilly. The air is getting thicker and the leaves are turning orange. Restaurants and cafes are changing their menus to their pumpkin spice specials and the roads are filled with joyful happy kids on their way to the hayrides and pumpkin patch farms. But where do you fall on the pumpkin spice scale? Are you a yay or a nay?
Has pumpkin spice gone too far? Has the name become overused? Have brands & companies used this name to supply bad products that don’t taste or smell good and aren’t enjoyable to their consumers? Is it worth the three months of advertisement? Or is pumpkin spice still worth the rage after all these years? Is it that good that we should be advertising it everywhere? Let’s tune in to hear what people think when they hear the words “pumpkin spice”.
One thing about pumpkin spice is that it has made a name for itself from lattes to Spam. Pumpkin spice has been ahead of its game since the 1670s when the first known record of pumpkin flavors was a British recipe that they called “pumpion pye”. Then in the 1930s, companies like Thompson & Taylor, and McCormick started selling pumpkin spice pre-blend mixtures in order to make cooking easier and faster for the people. Then years after that, Starbuck came into the picture with their seasonal special drinks and in the year 2003 Starbucks announced the “Pumpkin Spice Latte” or the “PSL” as some people call it. People went crazy and it became one of Starbucks best selling drinks. Pumpkin spice only went up from there. Like up and Up and UP. In 2015, pumpkin spice sales were worth over 500 million dollars and today it’s worth over 800 million!
When asked if they think pumpkin spice is over, under, or perfectly rated, 50 WMHS students responded to the poll. Here are the percentages.
Out of the 50 WMHS representatives I asked, 62% of people said pumpkin spice was perfectly rated, 12% said it was overrated, and the rest of the 26% said it was underrated.
Some said they just didn’t like the taste because it was too strong for them and just didn’t like that cinnamon ginger flavor, some people just don’t get the hype about it and didn’t feel like it was something to look forward to every year, and some simply said that it was something they did look forward to and gave them a sense of nostalgia and a feel good feeling.
In my opinion, pumpkin spice has been around for decades and there have been tons of classic American transitions surrounded by pumpkins/pumpkin spice so if you don’t like it you’re not just trashing on pumpkin spice you’re trashing on American history!
