20 Years Later: The Iconic Pumpkin Spice Latte

Trends may come and go, but one thing is certain: Pumpkin spice products are here to stay. According to the acclaimed newspaper The Guardian, between 2017 and 2021, the amount Americans spent on Pumpkin spice products rose almost 150% of 2017’s total pumpkin spice revenue in just 5 years. Not only that, just a quick keyboard search on Amazon for pumpkin spice products shows more than 138,000 Pumpkin spice items.

One of the most popular pumpkin spice products nowadays is the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, lovingly called the PSL. For twenty years, the PSL has become a fall staple. According to the Starbucks Stories website, the iconic PSL was created quite humbly, not unlike many other food staples such as the chocolate chip cookie: By simple trial and error. The website interviewed Peter Dukes, who led the team that created the PSL.

“We started with a huge brainstorm list and filled the wall with ideas,” Dukes said. “And once we got those ideas, we started to whittle away at them and came down to a list of about 20 different flavors including chocolate and caramel – the most popular flavors to pair with coffee – and there was orange and cinnamon … and there was pumpkin there as well.” Despite chocolate and caramel beverages scoring high on a poll by Starbucks to determine their next drink, Dukes says “But there was something special about pumpkin.

It scored high on “uniqueness.”’ Dukes and his team decided to keep it on their list of options. “They would sample a forkful of pumpkin pie followed by a sip of hot espresso – teasing out which flavors from the pie best complemented the coffee. For the next three months, the team refined the recipe, handcrafted with espresso, pumpkin spice sauce, and steamed milk – topped off with whipped cream and a dash of pumpkin pie topping.

In a taste test alongside the chocolate and caramel beverages, pumpkin was the clear winner. “‘

In 2003, Starbucks tested the drink in the market in the US and Canada. Even the store managers were excited by the sales even in the first week, according to Dukes, ‘“Within the first week of the market test, we knew we had a winner, Dukes said. “I remember calling store managers on the phone to see how the new beverage was doing, and we could hear the excitement in their voices.”’ Despite the rising sales, Starbucks still considered switching the PSL out.

But with Facebook and Twitter launching, so did the PSL’s popularity. “We launched PSL very well, but then there were discussions about discontinuing it,” Dukes said. “There was this idea back then of, ‘Hey, we want to keep things new, keep things fresh.’

And fortunately, we kept bringing it back. With the arrival of social media, it just took off on a whole new level.” Now 20 years later, the PSL has had lots of ups and downs, between social media accounts and thousands of followers, and PSL live stream celebrating the birth of a baby giraffe. A private Facebook group even was specifically for people who love PSLs, and all things autumn.

Merriam-Webster officially added pumpkin spice to the dictionary too, and a hotline was even set up for people in the US and Canada during 2020 that broadcasted traditional autumn activities such as hay rides. PSL’s journey didn’t stop there, though. In 2012, there was a shortage of PSLs that newspapers called “A pumpkin emergency.” The journey of the PSL’s been a weird one, but ultimately a rewarding one.