What better way to celebrate the first day of August than with pumpkin spice, right? I mean, who isn’t already wringing their hands in anticipation of cold weather, hot coffee and riding boots?
World Market decided that it’d get a leg-up on the cold weather competition by releasing this autumnal blend using the tagline, “It’s never too early for fall flavors!” But isn’t it? Really?
Get settled into your overstuffed chair with your Pendleton throw as you “sip subtle notes of pumpkin pie with hints of nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon.” Mmm…Thanksgiving!
Related: The Pumpkin Spice Latte Is A Delightful Twitter Troll
Other flavors include Bourbon Pecan and Caramel Apple.
About 20 years ago, pumpkin spice and fall hadn’t found and fallen in love yet. Starbuck’s began working on a big fall beverage. Peter Dukes was part of the team to find an autumn beverage to delight the masses.
“We started with a huge brainstorm list and filled the wall with ideas,” Dukes said. “We probably had at least a hundred ideas up on the wall. And once we got those ideas, we started to whittle away at them and came down to a list of about 20 different flavors including chocolate and caramel – the most popular flavors to pair with coffee – and there was orange and cinnamon … and there was pumpkin there as well.”
When they asked potential customers what flavors they were likely to purchase, it was the chocolate and caramel beverages that reliably performed best. But there was something special about pumpkin. It scored high on “uniqueness.” Dukes and the team decided to explore it a bit further and keep it on their short list.
For the three months, the team refined the recipe, handcrafted with espresso, pumpkin spice sauce, and steamed milk – topped off with whipped cream and a dash of pumpkin pie topping. In a taste test alongside the chocolate and caramel beverages, pumpkin was the clear winner.
