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As I write this newsletter, I’m sipping on what some would call a perennial fall fave, and what others might call a loathsome libation — a pumpkin spice latte (PSL).
You know fall is upon us, because the sticker on the $5-plus pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks tells you so. (Ben Sigurdson / Free Press)
I’m generally a one-PSL-per-year kind of guy at most — the drink, created by Starbucks and rolled out over 20 years ago, brings just enough of those clove, cinnamon and nutmeg flavours to help kickstart all the fall feelings in my mushy, middle-aged brain.
The trends the PSL has unleashed, however, are decidedly hit and miss.
Breweries: they do love their puns. (Ben Sigurdson / Free Press)
Pumpkin ales already existed prior to the arrival of the PSL, but the popularity of these spiced brews has skyrocketed in recent years. When it comes to fall beers, I’m more of a brown ale, marzen, stout and English special bitter kind of guy, and my feelings on pumpkin brews oscillate between enjoyment and revulsion.
It usually goes like this: one year I’ll review a whole bunch of pumpkin beers for Uncorked, but once I’ve tasted 5-6 of them, I’m sick of the stuff and swear off it for the following year. The year after that, I figure they could use a revisit. And, according to my story calendar, it looks like this is one of those years.
(Ben Sigurdson / Free Press)
There’s also the myriad of pumpkin-spice food crossovers, with cereal, baked goods and other breakfast items as well as cookies and the like often getting the spiced-up treatment. Pumpkin Spice Cheerios, anyone?
Pumpkin Spice Frosted Flakes. Are they gr-r-r-eat? No, reader, they are not. (Ben Sigurdson / Free Press)
Our recent trip to Minnesota (documented in a previous Dish) saw us drag back a box of Pumpkin Spice Frosted Flakes from the U.S. Look at Tony, in his personalized puffy vest — he’s really giving off those cozy fall vibes. The back of the box also indicates there’s pumpkin-spiced Special K and Frosted Mini Wheats, but I imagine these, like the Frosted Flakes, aren’t available in Canada.
I wonder whether the pumpkin-spiced craze in foods has fed into an adjacent (and wildly popular) trend of food brands crossovers. Beef jerky producer Jack Link’s, for example, now offers a Doritos Sweet Chili Heat flavour. I mean why stuff chips AND beef jerky in your face separately when you could be multitasking, right?
(Ben Sigurdson / Free Press)
Or maybe you’re a fan of both Oreo cookies and Coca-Cola, but the thought of consuming them separately seems like a real hassle. Well, now you can finally get them together — in both solid and liquid format, no less. The other day when I was grocery shopping I found, nestled next to each other in a display, Oreo-flavoured zero-sugar Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola flavoured Oreos, the latter complete with a popping candy-infused filling, to simulate the carbonation, I suppose.
I’m a drinks writer, so I figured I’d try the former in the name of research. My assessment: the first sip did indeed taste like the cookie, the second sip tasted like vanilla with a hint of cola, and the third sip tasted like an old rye and Coke left abandoned at a wedding social at the end of the night. (There was no fourth sip.)
What fall food trends do you love (or hate)? Pumpkin beers, PSLs, wacky flavour crossovers?
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