ST. GEORGE — Roaming along Target’s seasonal foods aisles, local Roxanne Wilmes and her fellow moms appraised pumpkin spice cookies, sprinkles, pies and latte mixes.
“They just hit different,” Wilmes said about the pumpkin spice-flavored foods. “They’re so tasty and wonderful. They taste like the season.”
And according to AdAge marketing, that season also tastes like money. Pumpkin spice foods and products have “evolved into a $500 million annual industry.” What may have begun with a Starbucks latte has turned into a craze that spreads into some foods you may not expect, some hitting the shelves in Southern Utah.
But can pumpkin spice be taken too far? When does pumpkin spice become an unwelcome guest at the Thanksgiving table?
Take, for example, Pumpkin Spice Cup Noodles introduced for purchase this year by Nissin.
“There’s a fine line between genius and insanity,” the company’s website says. “Care to cross it with us? Cup Noodles jumps on the Pumpkin Spice crazy train with a special pumpkin seasoning that’s the perfect blend of sweet, savory and spiced.”
Nissin emphasized the noodles will come to “select Walmarts in October.” Whether Southern Utah is included on that list of Walmarts remains to be seen, but Wilmes and her friends said they certainly don’t want pumpkin spice ramen.
In fact, they winced when they heard of Nissin’s new noodles.
“Well, that’s disgusting,” one friend said.
Wilmes clarified her rule for pumpkin spice.
“Sweet, not savory – that’s the rule,” she said. “Anything sweet is OK.”
In St. George, the cereal aisle boasts a colorful assortment of not only Halloween-themed sugar cereals but other sweet options, too — Cheerios, Kellogg’s Frosted Mini Wheats and Kellogg’s Special K all have pumpkin spice, limited edition flavors for purchase now.
Add to that pumpkin-spice-flavored pancake mix, almond and oat milk, coated pretzels and caramel corn and the list begins to grow.
And if all that doesn’t satiate consumers’ pumpkin-spice needs, a quick search on Amazon opens a treasure trove that goes beyond the palate. For those looking to not only ingest pumpkin spice but also wear it, there are body lotions, soaps, hair and body mists, deodorants and lip balms all infused with the pumpkin-spice fragrance – sure to have you smelling in season.
In the past, Pringles sold pumpkin-spice flavored chips, and KFC offered a pumpkin and feta chicken twister. These product lines have been discontinued, but pumpkin spice drinks continue to take the market by storm.
Feellove Coffee in downtown St. George sells seasonal pumpkin spice brews. A barista on duty said they had to turn away customers “for a week straight” until they felt the recipe was perfect.
The flavor of pumpkin spice tends to be a mixture of multiple spices – cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, among others. Pumpkin itself, however, isn’t an ingredient in pumpkin spice.
According to an article by “History,” researchers have found that “humans have been using nutmeg as food for 2,000 years longer than previously thought” in Indonesia. Nutmeg was a coveted spice by European elites from the Middle Ages to the mid-20th century, perhaps being worth more than gold.
Now, as October floods Southern Utah retail and grocery stores, nutmeg and its counterparts of pumpkin spice may not be too far off from the medieval avarice of old.
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