Details
The world’s most popular spice blend actually has a surprisingly long history.
Pumpkin spice – much like gingerbread spice – is a warm, fragrant mix traditionally made with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and cloves. It’s been beloved in the U.S. for decades, especially in pumpkin pies, but it truly took off with the rise of the Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL) – first introduced in 2003 by a well-known coffee chain, and still wildly popular today.
Before PSL, the spice mix was mostly used in baking. Over time, companies began marketing it as a single blend called Pumpkin Pie Spice. One of the earliest versions, launched by Thompson & Taylor in 1933, featured a harmonious blend of nine spices. McCormick’s mix – still available today since 1934 – includes four core ingredients: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
The original PSL developers allegedly poured different strengths of coffee over actual pumpkin pies to find the perfect match of spice and brew. Since 2003, over 425 million cups of Pumpkin Spice Latte have been sold in the U.S. alone.
Its runaway success created a whole new market for pumpkin spice–flavored products – from alcoholic drinks to cheese, marshmallows, hummus, even mac’n’cheese. Anything with the words pumpkin spice on the label is basically guaranteed to sell.
Made with sugar and sweetener.
Ingredients:
Fructose-glucose syrup, water, apple juice 50% (from concentrate), flavorings,
natural coloring: caramel (E150a), sweetener: sucralose, preservative: sulfur dioxide (E224)
Per 100 g of product:
- Energy: 1201 kJ / 283 kcal
- Fat: 1.0 g
– of which saturates: 1.0 g
- Carbohydrates: 68 g
– of which sugars: 59 g
- Protein: 0.0 g
- Salt: 0.0 g
Product Code: S057
