PSL Season
November 4, 2021
By Amanda Bang
When do you mark the start of the fall season? When the leaves start changing colors? When it gets colder and you have to start digging into your closet to find your hoodies? When people start talking about Halloween and what they want to dress up as?
Although I do use all of these mentioned above as an indicator for the start of autism, many use the re-introduction of the famous Pumpkin Spice Lattes to cafes, especially Starbucks, as another indicator for autumn season starting.
Pumpkin Spice Latte is a Starbucks originated drink that was created in 2003 by a team of few people in the “Liquid Labs,” including Peter Dukes who is now a director of Global Growth and Concepts of Starbucks. The drink combines many fall themed spices such as pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and clove, according to the Starbucks website. The espresso drink was made to taste like pumpkin pie, a common dessert eaten in fall time, to create an addition to the seasonal menu in Starbucks after their previous success in the winter menus. A decade and a half later, Pumpkin Spice Latte has become a worldwide phenomenon and an icon for the fall season.
The Pumpkin Spice Latte didn’t stop just in Starbucks. There have been multiple replications of the latte in corporate and individual brands as well. An example is Dunkin’ Donuts with their own Pumpkin Spice Latte, and even a new addition to their fall menu this year with the pumpkin cold brew. There are even multiple at-home recipes of the Pumpkin Spice Latte found online just from a google search, like a recipe from Food Network.
The abundance of pumpkin spiced seasonal drinks are a reason why the scent of these warm, autumn spices in coffee shops makes people feel like fall is starting to come. According to a CBS article about these lattes, more than 500 million Pumpkin Spice Lattes have been sold since 2003 from Starbucks. A 2018 Mic article predicts that Starbucks have made 1.4 million dollars just from selling this autumn drink. From these numbers and the addition to the brand of pumpkin spice from Starbucks with the addition of menus such as Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew or Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino, the influence and popularity of these lattes can be seen.
The culture and image built around these lattes for the past decade has been dynamic. Although it has become an icon to represent fall, the Pumpkin Spice Latte has also become associated with the concept of being “basic” in the modern media. The term “basic” used as a slang in American media is a negative term to describe someone who follows the mainstream trends or products. This meant that avid pumpkin spice drinkers were labeled in an unfavorable light. However, as these connotations also suggest that Pumpkin Spice Latte as a product is mainstream, it seems to be another indicator of the success of the fall themed drink.
Even one of the creators of the drink mentioned before, Dukes acknowledged the reputation of the drink as being “basic.” However, in an interview with the Insider, he indicated that he cares less about the more negative comments surrounding the drink, saying that “if that’s basic, so be it.”