Photo courtesy of Eater.com
Every August, the long-awaited Pumpkin Spice Latte returns to Starbucks. Even though school has barely started for most, and the temperatures are still high, customers line up regardless. This fall was our first time trying a pumpkin spice latte, but after finishing the cup, we were more sure than ever that the lines are not for the flavor but for the feeling of the season.
The drink was designed that way from its creation. Starbucks had already found the success of seasonal drinks with the Eggnog Latte and the Peppermint Mocha, but both belonged to winter. A fall drink would fill this seasonal gap. The Director of Store Development Strategy, Peter Dukes, widely celebrated as the “father” of the pumpkin spice latte, brought pumpkin pies into their lab and poured espresso straight onto them. The first cups were sold on October 10, 2003 at just 100 stores stretching from Washington, D.C. to Vancouver. A year later, the drink was sold nationwide.
Ella Gvodas ’28, a PSL fan, describes the drink. “They’re yummy, cozy, and not [does not have] too intense of a taste. Puts me in a fall spirit.” Brandon Williams ’28 takes on a different view: “Pumpkin spice is actually so deceitful. You’d think it would be good because it smells like fall as a whole, but it literally just tastes like bad coffee.” He argues that the spices overwhelm what could otherwise be a perfectly good latte.
For twelve years, there was not even pumpkin in it. Starbucks did not add pumpkin puree to the syrup until 2015, by which time the latte had already become a part of American ritual. Customers weren’t buying pumpkin. They were buying the idea of it.
Starbucks itself treats the drink as an event. Its release is announced in advance, and it is only available for a few fleeting months. Over the years, the release date keeps creeping ever closer to summer. In 2014, the drink even got its own Twitter account, @therealPSL, as though it were a celebrity instead of a menu item. A drink that sold purely on taste wouldn’t need all this publicity. The latte’s greatest appeal is the calendar.
Photo courtesy of @ mystarbucks
In fact, by 2021, Starbucks had sold more than half a billion pumpkin spice lattes, and no seasonal drink on its menu sells better. Dr. Catherine Franssen of the Science Museum of Virginia, in an interview for CBS, explained that pumpkin spice activates emotional associations with past experiences, while sugar amplifies those positive feelings. As she put it, “At the core of that is sugar.” A grande with whipped cream contains around 50 grams of it.
The spices themselves were never really about pumpkin. None of them come from North America, yet they found their way into the American pumpkin pie. Amelia Simmons’ 1796 cookbook American Cookery seasoned pumpkin pie with mace, nutmeg, and ginger. By 1934, McCormick was selling the blend premixed. The pie made those spices taste like Thanksgiving, and the latte simply borrows that association. Starbucks’s ingredient list makes the distinction clear: pumpkin puree appears in the syrup, but cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves are primarily found in the topping, dusted over the whipped cream. The pumpkin spice is a garnish.
Even as an imitation, the drink falls short. Nutmeg is heavy and bitter, clashing with cinnamon’s woodiness. Clove muddies both, while ginger hits the back of the throat. A pie balances these flavors through its filling and crust, allowing each ingredient to stand out. The latte stirs them all into a vat of hot milk, sacrificing texture, depth, and balance. What remains is the idea of fall in a paper cup.
People want a seasonal drink, and Starbucks claimed fall before anyone else did. The pumpkin spice latte has earned its place on the calendar, if not necessarily on the menu. It is clever marketing, a powerful dose of nostalgia, and, in our opinion, a bad drink.