Ah, pumpkin spice -- the universally acknowledged "official" flavor of the Autumn season. The second September 1st rolls around, devotees of the ever-popular Pumpkin Spice Latte flock towards their local cafés and coffee shops for a chance at the first sip of the season. At this point, it's safe to say that it has become fully ingrained into our culture.
So what started the trend in the first place?
It's probably no surprise that Pumpkin Spice has its roots in the multi-spice mixture found in, you guessed it, pumpkin pie. And for as long as we have been making pumpkin pies, we have been using some combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice -- a combination that still exists today in the form of spice companies' pre-blended mixes (many of which were made in the 1930s). However, believe it or not, Pumpkin Spice -- or Pumpkin Pie Spice as it was originally known -- did not contain any actual pumpkin in it, contrary to popular belief. This had many flummoxed by the time the latte was popularized by a certain coffee chain (yes, you know the one) some twenty years ago.
Hard to believe that before the Pumpkin Spice Latte's existence, nothing even remotely pumpkin-flavored had been on the market. Twenty years in, however, it doesn't seem to be leaving anytime soon. Watch more about the flavor's rise to fame came to be on CBS Saturday Morning.
Image via Jill Leigh on Pinterest.
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