It’s only the first day of September, but fall vibes have already entered the chat with the arrival of Starbucks’ seasonal Pumpkin Spice Latte.
Although the coffee chain has made the flavor a modern staple of autumn in America, the nation’s love affair with the spice goes back centuries. In recent years, researchers have aimed to uncover why we are so fond of pumpkin spice.
In a recent interview with Fox News Digital, Boston-based psychologist, author and Harvard University lecturer Matt Johnson explained that that at least part of the pumpkin spice appeal is located in the medial temporal lobe. He described this area of the brain as its “associative network,” that organizes learned concepts and how they are connected.
Johnson said pumpkin spice is “closely tied to the arrival of fall and the nostalgic, wholesome vibes of both family and the leaves changing.”
In Starbucks well-known Pumpkin Spice Latte, the spice blend includes cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and clove. The espresso-based drink is also garnished with pumpkin puree, whipped cream, sugar and has vanilla syrup inside.
According to Food & Wine, pumpkin spice blends have been part of the American baking tradition since 1798, when Amelia Simmons included it in her “American Cookery” cookbook. Marketing has made the pumpkin spice/autumn association even stronger.
Examining this relationship opens a window into “the neuroscience of taste,” according to Johnson.
“We are highly, highly visual creatures, but our sense of taste is one of our weakest senses,” he said. In fact, he said that we don’t really “taste objectively,” instead, “we almost ‘hallucinate’ with our taste buds.”
Smell also can help humans tap memories more powerfully than any of the other senses, according to Sarah Cormiea, a Johns Hopkins doctoral candidate studying human olfactory perception. She – along with Jason Fischer – a professor of psychological and brain sciences in the university’s Krieger School, explained some of the science behind pumpkin spice love last year.
“Once someone tells you it’s pumpkin spice, it will seem even more pumpkin spicy,” Cromiea said. “Labels prompt us to reconceptualize an odor – to change how we think about and experience it.”
Like Johnson, Cromiea said the evidence for this connection is in our brains. She said this evidence shows that “just reading smell-related words, for instance pumpkin spice, will spark activity in the area of the brain that processes olfactory stimuli, the piriform cortex.”
“Pumpkin spice aromas emerge in the fall in shops and cafes, coinciding with the arrival of colorful leaves, family gatherings, and back-to-school bustle. The association that the smell has with the season in our memories allows it to powerfully evoke the refreshing feelings of fall,” Fischer said.
“Even though I don’t consume any pumpkin spice products, I love seeing signs advertising it, because it means fall is coming,” Carole Purcell, of Columbia, Md., told Fox News Digital.
According to data from Nielsen and Forbes, “the pumpkin spice industrial complex” was a $600 million market as of 2018.
An Ipsos poll conducted last year found that 3% of Americans regularly drink Pumpkin Spice Lattes, 21% would be open to trying one and 46% said they had not tried one and did not want to. However, a Kearney survey from 2020 found that 66% of participants had positive feelings towards pumpkin spice and that men and women were equally included to have those positive feelings.
Although some have argued that companies push out pumpkin spice products too early, Fischer said it is normal to get a craving for them near the end of summer.
“We often long for the arrival of fall at the end of a hot summer, and our sense of smell can summon up the season early,” he explained.
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