The Pumpkin Spice Latte, or PSL, is a coffee beverage meant to evoke the flavors of autumn, especially those associated with pumpkin pie. Since its popularization by Starbucks in 2004, many people have looked forward to the pumpkin spice season every year, welcoming the fall by anticipating the date that the latte would return to their favorite coffee shops.
The drink has since become associated with a certain type of person, namely a “basic” white woman who follows trends and loves an autumn aesthetic. Despite the yearly mockery, the Pumpkin Spice Latte boosts coffee sales every time. This year, the tradition began earlier than ever, with Starbucks bringing it back on August 22.
A Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte recipe, in addition to espresso and milk, contains a couple of pumps of their signature pumpkin spice syrup and is finished with a dash of the dry spice on top of the foam. The syrup contains sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves, and for many years, did not contain any real pumpkin.
Despite initial outrage at the revelation that the PSL had no actual pumpkin in it, the spice itself was never meant to. Rather, it was created to complement recipes that use the vegetable, such as the classic Thanksgiving favorite: Pumpkin pie.
In 2015, in response to persistent online complaints, Starbucks introduced a new latte recipe that did contain some pumpkin puree. Not everybody liked it, but most felt that the small addition didn’t much change the flavor, which makes sense because the taste of the gourd is pretty subtle. That’s why Starbucks didn’t include it in the first place.
Seattle-based coffee giant Starbucks launched the PSL in October 2004. Credit for the idea belongs to Peter Dukes, Starbucks’ espresso division product manager starting in 2003. The company wanted a seasonal drink for autumn as well as winter, and pumpkin’s starring role in the season’s most food-based holiday, dessert division, was an obvious choice.
Technically, however, neither Starbucks nor Dukes can claim credit for coming up with the idea of pumpkin spice in coffee or latte form. Other, smaller caffeinated beverage companies, such as J.L. Hufford Coffee and Tea Company in Lafayette, Indiana, had already done it — Starbucks just made it a global sensation.
People began discussing the fevered anticipation for the Pumpkin Spice Latte every year on social media about as soon as social media became a thing. Twitter and Tumblr accounts dedicated to the drink both appeared in August 2014. That same year saw a surge in the mockery of the drink, and specifically the kind of people who enjoy it most.
On October 12, comedian Jon Oliver released a web exclusive for Last Week Tonight pretending to “investigate” the contents and origins of the spice, calling the PSL “the coffee that tastes like a candle.”
Much of the backlash found in The Pumpkin Spice Latte memes came from the fact that the popularity of the latte resulted in pumpkin spice being introduced into a wide range of other consumable products to the point that it got a little ridiculous.
Some, however, argued that the hate had roots in misogyny since the popularity of Pumpkin Spice Lattes was heavily associated with women. Derision for anything that mostly women like has been a documented phenomenon for decades, so they probably had a point.
There's something uniquely comforting about autumn, especially for a certain type of more introverted person who loves a cozy sweater and a hot coffee to balance the crisp, cool air of fall. The season is also associated with comforts like family and a full stomach, being home to Thanksgiving—the foodiest of all holidays.
Pumpkin spice, with its combination of sweet and warm, enticing flavors like cinnamon and nutmeg, spells relief from summer, which is fun but tiring and also sweaty. After months of that, a lot of folks look forward to a cooler change that brings the promise of all the year's best holidays.
Some people also think it tastes good, and you can fight them about it.
The popularity of fall and the spice that comes with it was underscored by the creation of the Christian Girl Autumn meme in 2019 after a Twitter user made a joke about the end of "hot girl summer," which had just been coined by Meghan Thee Stallion that year.
The two different types of girl seasons represented a kind of vibe dichotomy, one consisting of unrestrained party time and the other a more subdued, relaxing evening of snuggling on the couch.
The annual battle between these two types of people as summer transitions to fall shows no signs of coming to an end, and may last as long as humanity.
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