Leaves are falling, birds are migrating, and the air smells like a mix of cinnamon, pumpkin spice, and apple cider – all things I highly dislike, yet the craze for the latter two flavors skyrockets every fall. Though I personally am not enticed by these fall flavors, ever since Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte came out, it has been rapidly gaining popularity while apple cider has been popular since the late 1800s and is still well loved by the people. Which one is better though, apples or pumpkins? Well there’s a few things we have to look at: health benefits, consumption and production, and the thoughts of the general public.
To start we will look at the health benefits. Apple cider, in drink form, is usually created by grounding or crushing apples; however, as it usually gets added to other drinks, the total comes out to about 115 calories. On the other hand, just a tablespoon of pumpkin spice has a mere 6 calories, but when added to an 8 oz latte it comes out to 149 calories. Nothing too crazy, but it seems apple cider may just take the win on that one. Both beverages have healthy nutrients and contain antioxidants, therefore neutralizing any harmful things for your body. Overall, it seems apple cider takes the win, as according to VeryWell health, apple cider has more nutrients when compared to the pumpkin spice.
The next thing we have to focus on is the consumption sales and the production amounts, something anyone educated in the supply and demand law of the business would know. According to Coherent Market Insights, the pumpkin spice market is currently sitting at $1.1 billion this year and is projected to grow into $2.2 billion by 2032. By contrast, according to Future Market Insights Inc. the apple cider market currently sits at $109.8 billion and is projected to grow to $137.6 billion by 2035. With such a great gap between the two flavors, it seems that apple cider comes first once again as it is valued at over 100 times that of the pumpkin spice market. The projected growth also seems to be greater for the apple cider market as about $30 billion more is projected to be added to the apple cider market in the next 10 years, while for pumpkin spice only $1.1 billion more is projected in for the next seven years.
Lastly, there are the thoughts of the general public, disregarding myself. When I asked my fellow writers, the majority responded that they very much prefer apple cider rather than pumpkin spice flavored drinks and desserts (with the exception of pumpkin pie). Some stood in the middle and a minority thought pumpkin spice was better, which to me was honestly very surprising! I accepted that with the amount of talk people have done about pumpkin spice that there would be a huge majority that preferred it over apple cider, yet it seems many prefer to stick to the more natural and well known choice which is apple cider.
There you have it, it may not be the most suspenseful battle but even in 2025, apple cider is staying strong and beating any numbers and benefits that pumpkin spice has to offer!