- Nearly two decades ago,
beverage scientists at Starbucks
were tasked with creating a drink
that captures the very essence of fall.
By digging into an old-timey recipe
and tapping into some deep-seated Americana nostalgia,
the coffee chain birthed the seasonally appropriate beverage
that's sold hundreds of millions of cups
and spawned about a million misguided rip-offs.
It's a flavor that's become one of the most influential,
mimicked and maligned food inventions in recent history.
And it all started in a tiny room in Seattle.
2003.
In Starbucks's Washington headquarters,
inside the top secret R&D department
nicknamed The Liquid Lab,
Peter Dukes, Director of Espresso, and his team
were debating what autumn..
tastes like.
After countless brainstorms and extensive online surveys,
they narrow the field down to four potential autumn suspects
in the latte lineup: a chocolate caramel drink,
an orange and spice latte, a cinnamon streusel latte,
which would later appear on menus as a Cinnamon Dolce Latte,
and a pumpkin pie-flavored latte that barely made the cut.
During the development phase
they dig up recipes for pumpkin spice cakes
dating back to the 1930s
featuring nutmeg, cinnamon and clove.
And they use a thicker flavor sauce, in lieu of syrup,
to recreate the pie's distinct mouthfeel.
Eventually, they come out with a latte
that vaguely tastes like pumpkin pie.
But Starbucks execs had bigger qualms
than the lack of actual pumpkin in the drink.
They also just thought the latte was too..
for lack of a better word, weird.
But Dukes knew the flavor would trigger Thanksgiving-y
Americana sentiment sensors hidden deep within our brains.
And obviously he was right.
The pumpkin pie latte clearly stands out
during the testing phase
and they decide to green light it
with the live, laugh, love-style name
the Fall Harvest Latte..
until they realize customers
would have no idea what that meant,
so they changed it to Pumpkin Spice.
In 2004, after immediately successful trials
in Vancouver and Washington D.C.,
the drink is available nationwide
at the beginning of autumn.
For a reference, Avril Lavigne's "My Happy Ending"
is the biggest hit at the time.
And like the classic Avril ballad,
the PSL warms body and soul
and is decidedly not a passing fad.
The drink became a billion-dollar product for Starbucks
and left an almost unthinkable dent on popular culture.
But the legacy of the PSL
isn't just about making the caffeine mermaid company
a sh**-ton of cash.
The drink that was intended to evoke flavor nostalgia
has ended up being a rite of autumn passage in itself
and a yearly reminder of what too much of a good thing
looks like.
In the ensuing years
basically every major coffee company
has released a pumpkin spice riff,
and we've seen the likes of:
pumpkin spice butter, pumpkin spice Pringles,
pumpkin spice hummus, dog treats, beer, deodorant,
a collab with Easter in pumpkin spice Peeps,
and, of course, pumpkin spice poppers!
Normally released in late August,
it's a yearly tradition for websites, like Thrillist,
Twitter hotheads, like this guy,
and comedians like John Oliver
to lambast, lament, or celebrate the return of the PSL
and it's innumerable ripoffs.
But it wasn't until the early 2010s
when the drink became synonymous with an internet joke
that's tired at best and pretty sexist at worst,
AKA the basic bi***.
One part big ass scarf, two Ugg boots,
a prerequisite PSL in hand,
and an episode of The Office running in the background.
The trope of the basic bi*** is one of the defining
cultural cliches of our time.
And the PSL is, of course,
a major building block of that myth, for better or worse.
Probably worse.
Which, by the way,
all culminates in Christian Girl Autumn.
Amen!
In 2015,
Starbucks adds real pumpkin puree to the PSL,
which, according to some purists,
does slightly change the overall flavor of the drink.
But the drink unfettered continues its meteoric rise,
which brings us to our final point:
why is the PSL,
a drink so reviled by so many,
so beloved by the red-eyed masses?
If you mix limited time availability
(see our McRib video for thoughts on FOMO marketing)
with the lizard brain appeal of a nostalgic flavor
that's now nostalgic in itself,
then load it with so much sugar
you can't even tell you're drinking coffee,
it's not hard to calculate
how this perfect storm of autumnal happenstance
became our favorite fall pick-me-up.
So we salute you, Pumpkin Spice Latte,
for inspiring limitless amounts of content
for people like us,
for making pumpkin spice poppers a real thing you can buy,
and for ultimately delivering
a new fall culinary tradition
that doesn't involve sticking our faces into dirty water.
Because if you want to cancel anything about autumn,
let's start there.
Honestly, it's really gross.
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