During the fall seasons, pumpkin spice flavoring seems to be the only thing anybody talks about, whether it’s pumpkin spice lattes, cookies, muffins, donuts or even ice cream! Even so, pumpkin spice’s popularity is a bit polarizing, with some people being die-hard fans, and some people completely disagreeing with “the hype”, and saying that it’s not particularly good at all.
Junior Chiara Mardegain describes how she doesn’t really like pumpkin spice despite its popularity saying that “the only thing with pumpkin spice that I really like is pumpkin pie”. Freshman Skylar Trowbridge agrees, describing it as “overhyped” and saying that “everyone is very obsessed with it, when it’s kind of just a flavor”. She also mentions how the fact it’s seasonal is frustrating, how “it’s barely even out, so you can’t have it many times of the year”.
Junior Virginia Huntzinger completely disagrees, saying that “everything that’s pumpkin spice is amazing”, and how “if it’s pumpkin spice, I’ll consume it”. Daphne Linn, a junior, agrees, saying that “pumpkin spice brings an ethereality to otherwise mundane foods and beverages”. She also mentions how pumpkin spice really defines fall in her eyes, and reminds her of sweaters, leaves falling, the holidays, and just fall in general. Keaton Wagner, a sophomore, agrees, describing how he really enjoys the “fall smell” of pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks.
Even though the liking of pumpkin spice may seem like just a matter of taste, there are proven scientific studies demonstrating that since those who like the season of fall want to be reminded of its qualities, pumpkin flavored things being one of them. Our brain associates those qualities with warm and nostalgic feelings, and it triggers a release of content internal feelings. Both of the connotations of fall, and pumpkin spice reside in the medial temporal lobe, so that when one is triggered, it will automatically do the same to the other, making it so when some people think of fall, they immediately think of pumpkin spice.
Whether or not you like the season of fall determines how strong the correlation is, but there is no doubt that pumpkin spice is one of the most popular seasonal flavors of all time. Despite its divisiveness, pumpkin spice is not going anywhere, and most likely won’t be for decades to come.
