5 Things You Didn’t Know About Pumpkin Spice

Pumpkin Spice has become that thing that is synonymous with the fall season. And it seems that fall gets earlier and earlier every year. At least, the release of pumpkin spice gets earlier and earlier every year. With as popular, and properly equally hated, pumpkin spice is, how well do you actually know it? Here are 5 things you probably didn't know about pumpkin spice.

1. The flavor has been around a lot longer than you think. Pumpkin was a very common ingredient in Native American recipes and the earliest reference to 'pumpkin spice' dates all the way back to 1675 in a British recipe with pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon. However, McCormick, the spice company, is credited with giving 'pumpkin pie spice' it's name and putting it on grocery store shelves in the 1950s.
2. The original Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte didn't contain any pumpkin. How did it get its name? The drink contained the spices used in pumpkin pie, but not actual pumpkin. In 2015 Starbucks altered the recipe to include pumpkin.
3. People drink the most Pumpkin Spice Lattes on Halloween. Yup, October 31st, gets the most PSLs ordered.
4. What states really love their pumpkin spice? California, Oregon, Washington, Ohio, and Utah are the states where the most pumpkin spice food products are the most popular.
5. There are some really strange pumpkin spice products out there. Just some examples of the strange products are pumpkin spice deodorant, pumpkin spice dog shampoo, and pumpkin spice SPAM.

I don't mind pumpkin spice, but I'm also not the biggest fan. The only thing I ask is can we please wait until we're consistently below triple digits temps to break out the pumpkin spice?