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Autumn PSL** Season Two Years Ago [**Pumpkin Spice Latte]
I’ve been living in the UK for years now, so I had no idea that an insidious drug cult has taken over America. My first clue came two years ago when my plane landed in Atlanta. A group of young women screamed as they entered the terminal. No, really. Screamed. “PUMPKIN! SPICE! LATTES!” When my next flight landed in DC, several passengers menaced a Dunkin’ Donuts employee who was attempting to close down for the night. “Pumpkin spice donuts!” they demanded.
It’s everywhere. Hordes of suburban white female Americans are apparently roaming the streets, shuffling along in their Uggs and chanting “PUMPKIN SPICEEEEEE”. I tried to escape into my sacred, secure place, the one establishment that makes every ex-pat American groan with homesickness. But the clerk in Trader Joes greeted me brightly with the information that “We carry over 47 pumpkin spice products!”
I staggered to my friend Janine’s house. I’ve known her for four decades, and I knew I could count on her to offer me a comfy chair, a cup of coffee, and her latest baking treat. Here she comes now with a plate of her home-baked petit fours. I’ll just have a taste and…
Okay, it’s actually pretty good. Only now I have an uncontrollable urge to change into yoga pants, pin stuff to Pinterest, and buy all 47 things from Trader Joes…
OMG! PUMPKIN SPICEEEEEE!!!!
![[Image credit: dailydot.com] http://www.dailydot.com/via/pumpkin-spice-latte-backlash-calm-down/](https://barbtaub.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/3fdb1de38d5cc85c2357fd67467564d3.jpg?w=529)
[Image credit: dailydot.com]
Autumn PSL Season one year ago—
So last year, when I arrived in the States I thought I was prepared for America’s annual Pumpkin Spice orgasm.
I could pass the pumpkin spice product displays without blinking.
I could ignore the blatant infiltration by Peeps, those ironic little pervs who aren’t content with subverting their assigned holiday.
I could…
![[image credit: i.imgur.com] http://i.imgur.com/QzifXu7.jpg](https://barbtaub.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/5atetrq.jpg?w=529&h=452)
[image credit: i.imgur.com]
[image credit: itscasualfriday.com]
Barb Taub 
is it s pumpkin festival……
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No. A pumpkin festival would be festive and colorful and fun. A pumpkin spice latte is none of the above.
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Reblogged this on June Kearns.
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A (very belated) thank you for this lovely reblog!
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I hate to admit it but I don’t really like or get pumpkin spice. Does this make me weird?
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We weirdos have to stick together!
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Ha ha ha, brilliant!! I’m afraid this epidemic has filtered through to our young – my daughter (15) bought a pumpkin spiced candle yesterday so her room could smell, and I quote ‘American’!!!! 😉
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I weep for you.
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I still want to know how they get the “pumpkin” flavour into products before the pumpkins are ripe on the vine. I suspect chemicals. And if so, why not year round if the stuff is so friggin’ great?
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That’s the truly weird cherry on top of this whole sundae of weirdness—it does NOT involve any actual pumpkin! (Just, you know, spices that might be added to pumpkin…)
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Probably the only thing I have in common with the suburban housewives in this hysterical article is that I actually look forward to the time that Pumpkin Spice Latte finally appears in my local UDF every fall (United Dairy Farmers). Unless, of course, a fondness for pumpkin pie counts.
xx,
mgh
(Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMORE dot com)
ADD/EFD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder
“It takes a village to transform a world!”
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It could be our little secret?
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Shared with only a few bazillion folks who read your blog, of course. 🙂
xx,
mgh
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Only about 1/3 bazillion. 1/2 at most…
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It is definitely an epidemic and the pumpkin is so overrated. I have proposed a replacement of pumpkin mania with the lowly turnip. Under appreciated and delicious I think there is a real future for turning this autumn craze from orange to white with a pink blush. I even scored an interview with the emerging star who is a spokes turnip for the movement, Miss Ruta Baga. Won’t you join Team Turnip, Barb?
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Um… no?
(But lots of bonus points for hilarious try!)
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I blame Facebook.
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Clearly they are the axis of this evil web.
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I must confess, when I returned to North America recently, my first stop was at a Starbucks for an iced pumpkin spiced latte as was my last stop. What can I say?
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Ah but did you also buy the pumpkin spice muffin, pumpkin spice breath mints, pumpkin spice candles, pumpkin spice vape smokes, and pumpkin spice pumpkin spice?
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Just the muffin. I didn’t want to get oo carried away.
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Ha! I have to say, the Halloween Horror that is the US is alive and well here…tho not sure if we have Pumpkin Spice…will check…
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Stay strong! We can fight this. (Although my sister did just send me a PS muffin recipe that looks darn tempting…)
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Pumpkin pie is a wonderful memory from my Aus childhood. It’s a special treat, and only like my Mum makes. Not sure what the heck pumpkin spice is – in a pumpkin pie the spice IS spice – not pumpkin 🙂
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That’s the whole point! No pumpkins are involved in “pumpkin pie spice”. It makes my head hurt.
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Oh no, I may be one of the people you saw at Dunkin!😂
No, I would think of terrorizing the donut clerk…
Although – on the subject of pumpkin spiced peeps. I don’t know what to say.😖
Loved your post!!
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Thanks! (If we meet over Dunkins, we can politely pretend to each be eating the glazed cake donuts…)
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And what about the pumpkin spice candles? I see no mention of that olfactory delight!
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And who wouldn’t want their bathroom to smell like a Starbucks?
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A really fun post, Barb. I have never heard of pumpkin spice before.
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I’m not giving up!!!
“A processed food flavor” is how my former colleague Michael Moss described pumpkin spice in a New York Times exposé of sorts — about a “spice,” no less! — that made clear that there is often “little or no actual pumpkin in it.” Sometimes there are slight vestiges of genuine clove and vague traces of honest-to-goodness cinnamon. Frequently there are just chemical impostors.
A link to the entire article (New York Times): https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/opinion/pumpkin-spice-fall.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ty_20171018&nl=opinion-today&nl_art=1&nlid=74481721&ref=headline&te=1
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Personally, I think all “pumpkin spice” flavors are the devil’s work. Except for the ones I like, of course…
AND I especially resent vegetables masquerading as dessert. Pumpkin pie. ‘Candied’ sweet potatoes. Rhubarb anything. Zucchini** bread. (**except for my friend Nancy’s zucchini bread recipe, which is pretty much ambrosia and a bit of zucchini. Oh, and carrot cake. A good carrot cake is the food of the gods too.)
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