15 Things You Didn’t Know About Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte

Fall is coming and that only means one thing: Starbucks will be releasing its hot and tasty Pumpkin Spice Lattes back to the masses.

Sure, Pumpkin Spice Lattes have become a cliche at this point – especially as this once elusive flavor can be easily obtained outside the coffeehouse juggernaut. But the reason why it became such a meme to love Pumpkin Spice Lattes and share it with the world is because they’re so good.

It’s easy to take Pumpkin Spice Lattes for granted since they’ve become such a seasonal staple in our lives. However, this caffeinated treat wasn’t always deemed to be a surefire thing.

The Man Behind the Latte

Peter Dukes, current director at Starbucks, is credited as one of the creators of the Pumpkin Spice Latte. Dukes led the development of the Pumpkin Spice Latte in 2003 as product manager.

The intention was to follow up on popular seasonal flavors like the Eggnog Latte and Peppermint Mocha with one specialized in flavors associated with the fall such as pumpkin pies.

Test Run

Although Pumpkin Spice Lattes have become abundant at Starbucks in the fall — and outside of the coffee company as well — they were previously served in limited quantities during the early days of their creation.

Before being released nationwide, Starbucks only sold the Pumpkin Spice Latte at 100 stores in Vancouver and Washington, D.C. to gauge public interest during the fall of 2003. According to Dukes, the store managers couldn’t hide their excitement over how well the new flavor was doing in its first week.

Didn’t Fit the Brand

While the Pumpkin Spice Latte won over its test audience in 2003 and would do the same for its official fall 2004 rollout, the delicious pumpkin-flavored coffee almost didn’t happen because the higher-ups at Starbucks didn’t have faith in it.

“A number of us thought it was a beverage so dominated by a flavor other than coffee that it didn’t put Starbucks’ coffee in the best light,” Tim Kern, a former key Starbucks employee, told Quartz in 2013.

A Coffee by Any Other Name

According to Dukes in a 2023 interview with the Food Network, the Pumpkin Spice Latte wasn’t the first name for the flavorful beverage. There were debates on whether or not the new coffee flavor should be named after its season, with “Fall Harvest Latte” being thrown out as a possibility.

“Pumpkin Latte” was also an alternative before the company decided upon Pumpkin Spice Latte.

If You Know You Know

Even though casual coffee enjoyers refer to the Pumpkin Spice Latte as just that, the diehard fans of Starbucks like to call it the PSL. The reasoning is pretty simple. It’s the short and catchy abbreviation of the Pumpkin Spice Latte that’s commonly used as a beverage code for baristas to write on cups. It’s the perfect “cool” nickname for the hashtag generation.

A Delicious Influencer

Speaking of social media, the Pumpkin Spice Latte has quite a reach on various online platforms. The October 2010 launch of Instagram is where the phenomenon of taking selfies with your coffee came to be. In 2014, when X was still known as Twitter, the Pumpkin Spice Latte had its own official account with nearly 80,000 followers.

The Miracle of Birth

Okay, so maybe the Pumpkin Spice Latte won’t be the next Mr. Beast. However, Starbucks has been on the ball with keeping up with viral trends for further promoting its lovingly meme’d treat.

Spoofing the widespread coverage of April the Giraffe giving birth in 2017, Starbucks livestreamed a pumpkin hatching for its Pumpkin Spice Latte on YouTube.

No Pumpkin?

Now for a dark secret. The Pumpkin Spice Latte wasn’t originally made with actual pumpkins, only ingredients that mimic the flavor of real pumpkins.

As explained in this 2014 blog post by the “Food Babe,” one of those ingredients was Class IV Caramel Color, which allegedly has numerous negative health effects. In 2015, Starbucks revamped the recipe by removing the Class IV Caramel Color and adding pumpkin puree into the mix.

Sorry, Vegans

New recipe or not, the Pumpkin Spice Latte is unfortunately not friendly to vegans due to its main ingredient, the pumpkin spice sauce, containing nonfat milk.

Strangely, Starbucks in the United Kingdom has been selling a plant-based Pumpkin Spice Latte since 2018, but there’s been no expansion to the United States since. However, plenty of Starbucks’ competitors offer their own vegan-friendly take on the pumpkin-flavored drink.

States Obsessed With PSL

According to a Google Search data research conducted on Aug. 10, 2022, the top five states in the United States that are obsessed with Pumpkin Spice Lattes are Washington, California, Colorado, Oregon, and Illinois. The least obsessed are Alabama, Vermont, Louisiana, Maine, and Mississippi.

When it comes to cities that are the most obsessed with Pumpkin Spice Lattes, Minneapolis takes the crown.

Public Enemy #1

Heavy is the head that wears the crown. While Pumpkin Spice Lattes are one of the most popular flavors at Starbucks, its mainstream presence has made itself an easy target for lampooning.

Facebook Groups like “I Hate Pumpkin Spice” and merchandise with the slogan “Ain’t No Pumpkin Spice in My Mug” are out there and comedian John Oliver once compared the seasonal beverage to drinking a candle.

PSL Defined

But what truly is a Pumpkin Spice Latte? In 2022, Merriam-Webster added the term “pumpkin spice” along with other younger-skewing phrases like “sus” and “yeet.” The well-respected dictionary establishment defined pumpkin spice as “a mixture of usually cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and often allspice that is commonly used in pumpkin pie.”

Nice and Cold

For those who live in areas easily subjected to the heat — even in the fall — there are ways to get your pumpkin spice on without burning yourself up even further. Starbucks now serves an Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai and a Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew for pumpkin-loving customers everywhere. It’s the perfect treat for anyone looking to chill out.

MIA in Japan

For 15 years, the Pumpkin Spice Latte wasn’t available to order at Japanese Starbucks franchises, despite being temporarily available in 2006. While there were pumpkin-flavored variants like the Creamy Pumpkin Frappuccino, it just wasn’t the same. However, Starbucks Japan announced in 2021 that the elusive seasonal flavor would be readily available in an X post that exceeded 21,000 likes and 7,000 shares.

#PumpkinSpiceLabor

PSL isn’t just a delicious seasonal beverage. It’s a rallying warcry for hard-working yet underserved baristas who work at Starbucks nationwide.

Labor activists of the Starbucks Workers United “hijacked” the PSL marketing blitz in 2022 by redefining the hashtag as “Pumpkin Spice Labor.” This movement didn’t call for a complete boycott of the popular coffee-maker but to raise awareness for the workers facing serious, unresolved issues regarding the workplace nationwide.

Things will get interesting when Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol takes over the Starbucks business after the ousting of Laxman Narasimhan, given Niccol’s infamous union-busting history.