Pumpkin spice not so nice

By Laura Sansom
September 22, 2016

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There does not seem to be anything that does not come in pumpkin flavor nowadays. It used to be that pumpkins were around pretty much for just the month of October. Now, it is the middle of September, yet it seems like every place I go is ready for Halloween.

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Photo by: Laura Sansom

Considering Halloween isn’t until the last day of October and it feels like summer has just ended, it can feel a bit jarring to be surrounded by pumpkin flavored everything. The second I walk into a grocery store or coffee shop, or even look at social media, there it is. Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks have started serving their pumpkin spice coffee already and offer it in iced versions since it is still hot out. In my opinion, if it’s too hot out to drink hot coffee, then it probably isn’t time to introduce fall flavors yet.

Maybe I’m just too narrow-minded with my feelings on seasonal flavors, because pumpkin spice fans don’t seem to mind what time of the year it is. They want their pumpkin spice lattes, fall or not.

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Photo by: Laura Sansom

“It is a craze because customers of Starbucks love it.  If they had their way, it would be available all year round,” barista Jeff Hill said.

Though pumpkin spice lattes seem to be making their debut earlier and earlier each year, baristas are used to the customers’ obsession with them.

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Photo by: Laura Sansom

We know it’s coming every fall.  We crank them out to keep the customer happy… one at a time,” Hill said.

While lattes are now an expected fall staple, the craze goes far beyond just coffee.  Scrolling through Instagram, I saw Rita’s promoting pumpkin water ice and Baskin Robbins promoting pumpkin ice cream. There are pumpkin flavored cereals, cookies, and granola bars. Think of any food, and there is probably a pumpkin spice version of it. There is no escape from the flavor of pumpkin.

I don’t really understand it. Maybe it’s because I don’t really like the taste of pumpkin, but I find the abundance of love for it to be ridiculous. Even if someone loves the taste of pumpkin, it seems far-fetched that they would want everything they eat to taste like it. Companies should probably just stick to coffee and pies to give people their pumpkin fix instead of churning out pumpkin versions of every food imaginable the second September hits.

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Laura Sansom

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