Notas del episodio
For its first 12 years, the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte contained no pumpkin at all. The flavor comes from pumpkin pie spice, a premixed tin of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and ginger that spice companies were selling by the 1930s, and small coffee shops were already adding fall spices in the 1990s. Tori Amos even told a 1995 Seattle crowd about her own pumpkin pie coffee. In early 2003 Starbucks tested four seasonal drinks, and chocolate and caramel beat pumpkin in consumer testing. Developer Peter Dukes fought to keep it, and his team worked in a lab decorated with fall leaves, eating bites of pumpkin pie followed by shots of espresso.
After test runs in Vancouver and Washington, D.C., in late 2003, the drink went national in 2004. In 2015 Starbucks trademarked PSL, dropped artificial colors, and added real pumpkin puree, which the Institute of Food Technologists said was imperceptible. Sales passed 200 million by 2013 and 424 million by 2019, and the drink is estimated at about $500 million a year as of 2025. Its limited season drives a spillover of pumpkin spice cough drops and pasta sauce and a halo effect that sends customers to Dunkin' and other rivals.
- Starbucks already had winter hits in the peppermint mocha and eggnog latte, and needed a drink for autumn.
- Dunkin' launched its version in 2007 and McDonald's by 2013.
- Starbucks foot traffic jumped 24.1% on its 2023 launch day, and 42 to 45% in some states.
- Dunkin' saw a 3% traffic rise in 2019 on the day Starbucks released the PSL.
- In September 2025 CEO Brian Niccol credited fall drinks for a record sales week at US company stores.