Spice-O-Rama

Code Orange… Warning… Code Orange… It’s September and we all know what that means!  Pumpkin Spice Season is back with a vengeance.

It all started so innocently 15 years ago: the coffee drink made with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, steamed milk and whipped cream. Now the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL) has taken over the Fall season and has been copied, tweaked and cloned beyond recognition. Products are now popping up in EVERY segment of stores around the world.

From Pumpkin Spice Cheerios and pumpkin pie non-dairy creamers to pumpkin-scented air fresheners and pumpkin ale, it’s reached an all-time epidemic. Click To Tweet

From Pumpkin Spice Cheerios and pumpkin pie non-dairy creamers to pumpkin-scented air fresheners and pumpkin ale, it’s reached an all-time epidemic.

There’s even a pumpkin spice anti-perspirant/deodorant on the market. People, please. I beg you. Get a grip. We must draw the line somewhere.

According to an article in USA Today, this is big business. Nielsen states that Americans spent more than $488 million in the U.S. on pumpkin spice-flavored foods in the past year, with a projected jump of a 15 percent increase in sales this year.

But part of the appeal is you can’t get it year-round. Imagine if you were about to order a PSL in the Spring?  BLASPHAMEY! By limiting the availability of ‘everything pumpkin’ it creates the yearning and demand. And those retailers are smart. Not everything is available at once. The ‘pumpkin’ season is so finely tuned that is teases out products throughout the whole season. Before you know it, you are consuming a pumpkin item for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner.

Call me old fashioned, but I love staying innocent of all pumpkin until Thanksgiving when I have my pumpkin pie. (Cue the Christmas carols.) Only soon to be interrupted the very next day by gingerbread lattes, peppermint bark donuts, and all the candy cane pine-scented candles and body lotions you can get your hands on.

Happy Scent-O-Days…

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