16 Identity Crisis Driven Foods to Try or Avoid

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte: The Coffee That Thought It Was A Pie

In the early 2000s during the discovery of the popularity of seasonal flavors, Starbucks started to develop the Pumpkin Spice Latte. Led by product manager Peter Dukes, the Liquid Lab brought to life the coffee that thought it was a pie.

I’ll confess right off the bat that I am not a big coffee drinker. Back then it sounded like such a weird idea to me, but a test run in Vancouver and Washington, DC proved otherwise. Sales exploded beyond expectations. “We couldn’t keep up initially,” Dukes said, “We had to expedite inventory to the stores.”

This led to a national rollout and a Pumpkin Spice Latte became a national fall obsession. According to Dukes, “Pumpkin Spice Latte has become more than just a beverage. It has become a harbinger of the season.”

The United States isn’t the only place where Starbucks fans look forward to the seasonal flavor. However, it may be the only place where one successful identity crisis has led to some really, really bad products trying to get on the pumpkin bandwagon.

Some of the pumpkin spice products from other companies read like a twisted Forrest Gump style foods list. Pumpkin-spice foie-gras mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie vodka, pumpkin pie protein powder, pumpkin spice Pringles, pumpkin spice hummus, pumpkin IPA-infused chocolate, and pumpkin spice salad. CNN refers to the product parade as an “annual pumpkin spice onslaught.”

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte is the rockstar of identity crisis foods, while other pumpkin spice followers could use a lesson in why there isn’t one flavor to rule them all.

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