Attention all Starbucks, Brew Bayou, and Pumpkin-flavored-everything fans: The Pumpkin Spice Latte and tons of other pumpkin flavored and scented products are officially back for the season.
Recently, Starbucks Corp. has started hyping up its special autumn drink, but hasn’t caught on most coffee drinkers yet. The Starbucks located on Marquette’s campus had almost every seat in the house full at approximately 3:30 p.m. on a Tuesday, yet most customers did not have a Pumpkin Spice Latte.
For some, the weather just isn’t cold enough – who needs to warm up with a Pumpkin Spice Latte when you can get a Pumpkin Spice Frappucino and cool down? Taylor Maniaci, a freshman in the College of Health Sciences and a coffee addict who comes to Starbucks once daily, decided to go with the colder version of the popular fall drink. “Pumpkin Spice Lattes are my go-to in the fall, they’re my favorite thing. (They) just taste good,” Maniaci said.
Others are not fans of the Pumpkin Spice drinks altogether. “I think it’s a big hype”, said Kelli Nguyen, a sophomore in the College of Communication, and coffee lover who drinks a cup of coffee a day or visits Starbucks twice a week. She prefers a Chai Tea Latte over the Pumpkin Spice Latte.
Monika Cinch, a junior in the College of Business Administration and a coffee addict, said that her favorite drink at Starbucks is the cold brew. She prefers this drink over the Pumpkin Spice Latte due to the latte’s unhealthiness. However, she does still enjoy the latte on special occasions. “I appreciate the fall, and I think it’s fun when it first comes out, like, ‘today’s the day I’m going to get my pumpkin spice latte,” Cinch said. “It’s a once-a-season thing for me.”
The Pumpkin Spice Latte definitely attracts a lot of attention to Starbucks, and the Brew on campus as well. The Brew will not officially advertise its version until October for the specialty drink of the month. However, the Brew will still make a Pumpkin Spice Latte before October officially hits. Samantha Thompson, a barista at the Brew and senior in the College of Nursing, said, “I think (business) will increase, because people like their Pumpkin Spice Latte drinks,” Thompson said. She added that they will get a lot of orders at the main location in the AMU.
Thompson said that she thinks people haven’t really been ordering Pumpkin Spice Lattes because “people don’t really consider it to be fall quite yet. Once it cools down, people will get (in) their ‘fall mode’ in a couple of weeks.” The Brew has no set deadline as to when the Pumpkin Spice Latte will stop being made. “We’ll still make them, you would have to know about it to order it.”
The Pumpkin Spice Latte is not the only product of its kind. There are many other goods out there contributing to the pumpkin spice craze, a lot of them very strange. Pumpkin spice Oreos are available at Walmart for $2.87. Candywarehouse.com carries a 60-piece bag of pumpkin spice Hershey’s Kisses for $6. Another crazy product is pumpkin spice pasta sauce, available at World Market for $3.99. If that’s not enough, one can even smell like pumpkins with the help of Bath & Body Works fall fragrance line, Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin, complete with lotions, body scrubs and perfume. Target has pumpkin spice deodorant and shaving cream. Pumpkin Spice marshmallows and Peeps are also legitimate merchandise in the market.
Walt Isenman, a sophomore in the College of Nursing, said he is not a fan of pumpkin spice products. “I don’t buy a lot of that kind of stuff, especially with Starbucks as big as it is. I thought it was alright, (but) it’s not the greatest I’ve ever had.” All of the attention through social media and advertisements towards the pumpkin flavor turned Iseman away. Isenman would not buy pumpkin spice Hershey’s Kisses. “You gotta keep with the original,” Isenman said.
