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As I write this Thursday afternoon, my esteemed co-workers, Jen Zoratti and Dish co-writer Eva Wasney, are prepping their palates for a taste test of the various pumpkin spice lattes available. (A&W has a pumpkin spice latte. Who knew?)
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the beloved seasonal drink, which I’ll let them delve into when their piece runs in the Free Press next week.
The OG — the Starbucks pumpkin spice latte. (The Associated Press files)
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It appears the pumpkin spice craze continues mostly unabated — among new and returning offerings this year (beyond the coffees) are pumpkin-spiced cereal (Cheerios, Mini Wheats, Frosted Flakes and the like), candies (pumpkin spice Werther’s, you say? Hard pass) and so on.
Pumpkin spice Spam = end times. (Winnipeg Free Press files)
The flavour of pumpkin-spiced everything, of course, has less to do with the titular gourd and more to do with how much cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger and such is added to whatever base material is being seasoned. The spices tend to overpower all things pumpkin in almost any food/drink item — even in pumpkin pie.
Then there’s that big, seasonal pumpkin-spiced elephant in the room — beer.
My relationship with pumpkin beers is… complicated. I’d say it’s love-hate, but love is far too strong of a word. (Is like-hate a thing? Tolerate-hate?)
I only tend to review pumpkin beers for Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column, every second year. Here’s what usually happens: I taste six pumpkin beers side by side and a couple are decent, a few are mediocre at best and one or two are kind of repulsive. I’m then all bloated, sitting in front of six open cans of pumpkin beer I’d rather not drink. I get mad, proclaim the fad to be dumb and swear off tasting pumpkin beers the next year.
Anyway, I’m starting to wonder whether the pumpkin spice-flavoured beer (and booze) trend is waning a bit. As of this writing, the Liquor Marts website lists just five pumpkin-related drinks, only one of which is currently available (and only one of which is beer — Torque’s Witching Hour, a dark pumpkin ale).
Torque’s Witching Hour dark pumpkin ale, one of the stronger local pumpkin offerings, is back again this year. (Torque Brewing)
Maybe it’s a bit early in decorative gourd season for the pumpkin spice beers to be rising from the great pumpkin patch and on to shelves at Liquor Marts and beer vendors, but a quick scan of local brewery and beer vendor websites doesn’t seem to indicate there’s much pumpkin coming down the pipes.
What say you, Dish readers — pumpkin-spiced drinks, yea or nay?
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