The Vitriol Over Pumpkin Spice: Is it Justified?

Pumpkin spice has returned, and with it, the annual outrage.

Is the vitriol justified, or have we collectively decided to bully a harmless blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves?

Every fall, pumpkin spice appears seemingly everywhere. Coffee. Muffins. Candles. Cookies. Creamers. Cereals. Before long, someone somewhere is demanding to know why everything has to taste like autumn.

The reaction is almost as predictable as the flavor itself.

For some, pumpkin spice is the unofficial beginning of fall. The first cup means cooler mornings, sweaters, leaves changing and the return of all things cozy.

For others, it is an annual invasion.

And somewhere along the way, disliking pumpkin spice became part of the season too.

Maybe pumpkin spice is simply a victim of its own success.

It became so popular, so quickly and so completely, that eventually people started rooting against it.

Pumpkin spice does not seem concerned. It returns every year, watches the eye rolls and waits for the orders.

Then there is another possibility: some of its fiercest critics may secretly enjoy it and simply refuse to admit it.

Perhaps that is why the argument survives. Pumpkin spice has become less of a flavor and more of a fall personality test.

Love it, hate it or pretend not to care, everyone seems to have an opinion.

Sam Clemens wants to understand why.

She is approaching the assignment with genuine curiosity: how did a seasonal flavor become a cultural phenomenon, inspire such devotion and provoke such hostility?

The Manassas Journal has decided this requires further investigation.

Sam will trace the phenomenon back to its roots, talk to the devoted, study the skeptics and attempt to understand what pumpkin spice has done to otherwise reasonable people.

The trail appears to lead back more than two decades, to a corporate coffee laboratory where someone decided pumpkin pie and espresso belonged in the same room.

Sam will follow the evidence wherever it leads.

Next: How did pumpkin spice go from a seasonal flavor to something people judge each other over?