Love it or hate it, pumpkin spice beckons

And now, switching gears, I have a confession to make.

No, I’m not a secret Trumper. I don’t kick puppies, nor do I wear Third Reich themed jammies to bed. I’m not using AI to write columns.

No, simply, I enjoy Pumpkin Spice Lattes, also known as PSLs.

This is a choice that appears to be fraught with cultural baggage. Some people hate the drink, flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, viscerally. Bring it up in conversation, and you’ll need to have a defense ready to counter the haters.

The famous fall drink made its first appearance a week ago in the heat of August. It will soon be cooler, so get that froth in your beard.

Apparently, that’s tough for men. We’re a little fragile. In a 2017 Vice article authored by Diana Tourjee and Leila Ettachfini they wrote “the beverage inspires the image of girls who are shin-deep in Uggs, taking their SUVs through Starbucks drive-thrus to get their fix.” They interviewed men who were sheepish about ordering PSLs loud and proud.

Maybe we’re more enlightened now.

“Just a whiff of a pumpkin spice latte can render a man impotent for hours. Maybe longer,” according to some dude’s Aug. 25 post on X.

OK, maybe not.

Truth is, according to marketing research in 2022 by Montclair State University, PSL fandom is split roughly evenly between men and women, 52% to 48 percent.

Stagwell Marketing Cloud surveyed 1,000 Americans in 2023 on their feelings about Pumpkin Spice Lattes. It turns out the drink’s smell was its best attribute according to the survey. Maybe a bit of nostalgia for grandma’s pumpkin pie. Smells can evoke powerful emotions.

Asked do you love pumpkin spice or hate it, 58% were lovers with just 15% choosing hate. And, sensibly, only 27% want the beverage year-round.

Reminds me of an Elmo video my kids used to watch where the little red fluff ball wishes it could be Christmas every day. It sounds good but is no longer special.

But this is big business. The Starbucks’ PSL and other pumpkin flavored products are an $800 million industry. What would happen to our economy without a pinch of nutmeg?

At 50 grams of sugar, more than is found in a can of Coke, there also may be health implications. Does incidence of Type 2 diabetes peak in the fall?

And as with so many things, academic researchers are frothing things up. A fall 2015 study by Lisa Jordan Powell of the University of British Columbia is titled “The Perilous Whiteness of Pumpkins.”

“Although the PSL was celebrated as a company and cultural success in 2013, one year later it was firmly hitched to discussions of white female identity and consumerism as both a dismissive, racially coded slur and a rallying counterpoint,” Powell wrote.

Powell argues PSLs are a luxury item enjoyed as a symbol of white privilege. She digs way back to the days when the first coffee shops were wealthy male bastions where politics were debated and, in some cases, revolutions were planned. She makes some interesting points to consider while slurping.

I get it, you’re tempted to roll your eyes. But dismissing research on white privilege is, itself, an expression of white privilege. Your best bet is to take a big gulp of latte, which will wash down that snark.

I haven’t yet ordered up a PSL. It just doesn’t sound as good when the heat index is 105 degrees. But some morning when a slight chill is in the air, I’ll be there. I’ll just follow the smell of nutmeg.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com