Fall, the season of fresh breezes and warming calm colors. Mustard yellow, olive green, and every Longhorn’s favorite, burnt orange. The atmosphere has shifted from a loud and fun feeling to coziness and peace. What’s there not to love about such a soothing season? Well, there’s one thing… The over-rated flavor of pumpkin spice EVERYTHING.
Every Fall season, I see the same thing: girls posting in excitement for the announcement of Starbucks’ PSL being back on the menu. Followed by the millions of Snapchat and Insta stories of these drinks. I just didn’t get, what was so good about a pumpkin spice latte? I had to find out. So this Fall, I went to Starbucks and ordered my first ever pumpkin spice latte, hoping to finally understand these PSL girls. Grabbing my cup, lifting it towards my lips for the very first sip of fall, I think to myself, I really hope this is good. The excitement stopped the second the flavor activated my taste buds.
The drink was absolutely terrible. I kept going back to see if it was just the first sip that wasn’t good, but all I can think as I drank this is it tasted like feet. (Side note: I have no clue what feet taste like, but that is what popped into my head, so I am gonna go with the smell of feet is what it tasted like.) I mixed my whip cream into the drink, hoping that would salvage it, and nope, still bad. I was expecting it to be sweet, a sweet pumpkin-y flavor like pumpkin pie. I was so disappointed and sad that I was robbed of six dollars for a feet-y flavored drink.
Anyways, me not liking the drink is not the problem here, the problem is the overuse of pumpkin spice! I thought this season had escalated with the numerous recipes being posted all over (like pumpkin spice tres leches cake WHAT?) But it turns out, the pumpkin spice obsession has always been escalating with ridiculous pumpkin spice products. Pumpkin spice Pringles, Twinkies, PUMPKIN SPICE BEARD OIL. BEARD OIL. It’s too much… You guys are over-hyping a fall flavor that isn’t even that good…
I understand your PSLs. It’s a coffee drink, a frappe, a latte. Not liking a PSL is like not liking Mocha or Hazelnut, people have preferences with flavors, and it’s normal. The desserts, that normal too, okay so you have pumpkin spice donuts, that also makes sense, tres leches cakes… that one, that one doesn’t sound right. But what really doesn’t sound right is the pumpkin spice Pringles and beard oil… Chill out. I just know there is probably worst things where some people may have tried to add the pumpkin spice flavor… but you know what they say: out of sight, out of mind.