Hey, pumpkin tastes good. What’s wrong with that?
Perhaps you’re not ready to go Starbucks and be seen purchasing a pumpkin spice latte (or PSL if such is your fancy). That’s understandable, given the bad reputation they have. But is it really so wrong to like a certain flavor of coffee drink? It may not be my personal favorite, but I do enjoy them once in awhile.
There has been plenty of excited discussion regarding the announcement that Starbucks made this fall: this year, pumpkin spice lattes will have real pumpkin in them!
Some people see this as a relief, while others were scandalized that this wasn’t the case in the first place.
“There’s no pumpkin in it because it’s pumpkin spice, and not pumpkin, that’s the star. The coffee flavorings are designed to resemble cooked pumpkin spice: a blend of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. It’s supposed to taste like the spicy components of a homemade pumpkin pie, not actual pumpkin,” explains Mandy Oaklander of TIME Magazine.
I’ve been trying to reason out why people don’t like the pumpkin spice fad that is currently taking our American autumns by storm, and I’m not coming up with a very convincing argument against it. Pumpkin is the flavor of fall–it really always has been–so I don’t mind “spicing up” the idea. Consumers can now purchase a vast assortment of pumpkin spice related items, from candles to marshmallows.
And contrary to popular belief, not all lovers of the PSL are yoga-pant-clad girls complaining about their wifi not working on their iPhones. Some PSL enthusiasts are moms who simply enjoy the flavor.
It seems that if you like this one specific drink, the public believes you are somehow less intelligent: only ditsy, shallow teenagers who care too much about their Uggs not getting wet like PSLs, apparently.
But this isn’t a fair assumption, because honestly: it’s a coffee drink.
So if I feel like drinking something that is flavored like a spiced pumpkin I shouldn’t feel like I’m losing IQ points, because I’m not.
It’s just a drink that people like: get over it.