Do People Really Like Pumpkin Spice? Here's What Our Survey Suggests.

ACROSS AMERICA — Love it or not, it’s the season for the ubiquitous blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. The results of our informal pumpkin spice reader poll suggest we’re as divided on the unofficial flavor of fall as we are about everything else.

It’s not scientific, mind you. But it does reflect a variety of opinions about “pumpkin spice creep” and the lengths to which some companies will go to grab their marketing share of the fall infatuation.

Of the 223 readers who responded, 55.6 percent said this is their time of year, compared with 42.6 percent who want to be awoken when pumpkin spice season is over.

There’s no hard date for that. With products that range from the frenzy-starting Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, or PSL as the devotees call it, to actual pumpkin spice-scented bum wipes, does pumpkin spice season ever really end?

Of those wipes, they’re “a bridge too far” for many readers, including an East Brunswick (New Jersey) Patch reader generally likes pumpkin spice.

“I love the candles,” the reader said. “You know what? I kinda like the pumpkin spice muffins, too.”

‘Reminds Me Of Mom And Grandma’

A Westfield (New Jersey) Patch reader is all in — except when it comes to pumpkin spice-scented cat litter or garbage bags.

“Autumn is my fave season,” the reader said. “Plus, my mom always made delish pumpkin pies she delivered to friends and neighbors. These flavors remind me of her.”

The reader was among several who said the aroma of pumpkin spice triggers warm memories.

“Pumpkin spice brings back a feeling of nostalgia,” a Concord (New Hampshire) Patch reader said. “Nutmeg and cinnamon, in conjunction with the changing leaves and emerging of Halloween decorations, are so cozy.”

Our original post: What’s A Bridge Too Far In the Fall Pumpkin Spice Flavorama?
Pumpkin spice in food is so, so ordinary. The flavor is in toothpaste and the scent is in bum wipes. Pumpkin spice is even an engagement ring.

“I love pumpkin spice flavor,” a Bradenton (Florida) Patch reader said. “There is something comforting about it. It just gives that remembrance of crisp, fall air, colored leaves and a vitality in the air.”

An Across America Patch reader evoked the joke about “pumpkin spice motor oil” — it’s not a real product — but otherwise entertained warm thoughts: “Love it. Reminds me of cozy sweater nights, Halloween, Charlie Brown, crunchy leaves, football, yummy breads, home.”

Pumpkin spice smells and tastes like love for another Across America Patch reader, who said it “reminds me of walking in the kitchen and Mom and Grandma making pumpkin pies, muffins or bread for her loving family.”

“It’s a good vibe,” a Haverford-Havertown (Pennsylvania) Patch reader said.

“I love it more than I love myself,” said a Phoenixville (Pennsylvania) Patch reader.

‘Blight On Humanity, Assault On Good Taste’

An Upper East Side (New York) Patch reader feels the opposite, saying simply, “I can’t abide it.”

There was plenty of that kind of talk.

“It sucks. Give me pumpkin, not pumpkin spice,” a Petaluma (California) Patch reader said. “It’s vile,” a Salem (Massachusetts) Patch reader said. “It’s gross,” said An Oak Lawn (Illinois) Patch reader, and a Cherry Hill (New Jersey) Patch reader proclaimed it “nasty.”

An Astoria-Long Island City (New York) Patch reader said the spice blend doesn’t belong in anything that doesn’t include pumpkin, calling it “a blight on humanity and an assault on good taste.”

A Bethesda-Chevy Chase (Maryland) Patch reader who also would like to sleep through pumpkin spice season sees no redeeming value in pumpkin spice. “I hate it — the smell, the taste, the ubiquity,” the reader said.

Besides the scented bum wipes and toilet paper, readers said the line is crossed with pumpkin spice toothpaste, deodorant, soap, beauty products, cough drops, condoms, tampons, hotel rooms, air fresheners, hummus, pasta, milk, Spam, Twinkies, tacos, cereal, dog food and beer — especially beer, said a Bonney Lake-Sumner (Washington) Patch reader.

The bridge too far is “beer that claims to be pumpkin beer but is in actuality pumpkin spice favored beer,” the reader said, adding, “Along with vanilla and hazelnut coffee, pumpkin spice is the most cloying flavor/aroma I can imagine.”

A person who reads St. Pete Patch and Tampa Patch in Florida, Toms River (New Jersey) Patch and Greenwich (Connecticut) Patch said the only bridge too far when it comes to pumpkin spice products is one that would be an escape “from this horror.”

“Yay, America,” the reader said. “We now have a festival of fake, processed flavor.”

“Smelly spice socks” are the limit for a Lakewood-JBLM (Washington) Patch reader who otherwise loves pumpkin spice products because “it means fall is here!”

A Summit (New Jersey) Patch reader draws the line at a pumpkin spice latte-inspired engagement ring that costs around $12,700. Otherwise, the reader loves pumpkin spice, especially in pie.

“Maybe a massage or engagement ring, but c'est la vie!” said an Arlington (Virginia) Patch reader who otherwise loves pumpkin spice season.

A Roseville (California) Patch reader who’s in the no-pumpkin-spice-bum-wipes camp noted, “I would try that caviar.” (To be clear, no fish gave up their eggs for pumpkin spice-flavored caviar.)

That said, “I love all things pumpkin spice and look forward to the smell of fall every year,” the reader said.

Why Fuss About It?

A Laguna Beach (California) Patch reader. “If people love pumpkin spice, then they should be able to enjoy it in any form they like.”

The reader said it’s a nice scent and flavor best enjoyed in moderation, “as with other scents and flavors.”

“I think the popularity of pumpkin spice is comparable to that of peppermint in the winter and watermelon and barbecue in the summer,” the reader said, pointing out that “spring seems to be the only season that doesn’t have a signature scent.”

An East Windsor (New Jersey) Patch reader doesn’t think pumpkin spice is all that, but doesn’t understand fussing at people who do.

“While I don’t enjoy it, what pumpkin spice actually is just a classic warm English spice blend,” the person said. “Feeding into the manufactured controversy that arose because women liked a certain type of latte is absurd. People have been putting what is being called ‘pumpkin spice’ derisively on pies and roasts for centuries. Why should it infuriate anyone what type of latte people enjoy?”

Why indeed?

“You can get apple everything all year long, why not pumpkin?” said a Nazareth (Pennsylvania) Patch reader. “I’d love it all year.”

Rage Against The Machine

A Haddonfield-Haddon (New Jersey) Patch reader raged against the pumpkin spice machine.

“I love pumpkins and I love spice,” the person said, “but I hate the marketing machine that peddles toxic chemicals into our food and air supply via myriad products.”

A reader of several Illinois Patch sites was gentler, dismissing it as a “silly corporate sponsored fab.”

“It’s great when used for its original purpose — baking,” a Bellevue (Washington) Patch reader said. “Not so great when turned into a mass marketing tool and put into anything and everything.”

“It’s overrated for sure and a moneymaker,” said a Farmingdale (New York) Patch reader, who added, “Pumpkin spice candles are my limit.”

A Del Ray (Virginia) Patch reader is all about truth in labeling. “I like it, but it’s actually ‘pumpkin pie spice’ — or maybe ‘autumn spice’ or ‘harvest spice,’ ” the reader said. “There isn’t, or shouldn’t be, any pumpkin involved.”

A Bel Air (Maryland) Patch reader is completely over the hype.

“It’s gone too far,” the reader said, noting the various marketing takes on the spice blend were funny “about three years ago,” but “now it is annoying and starting too early.”

“I love pumpkin spice, but it’s over played and getting ruined,” a Toms River (New Jersey) Patch reader said.

When Pumpkin Spice Hurts

Some people said pumpkin spice literally makes them sick.

“It overwhelms my MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity) and gives me migraines,” said a Woodstock-Towne Lake (Georgia) Patch reader.

Another Patch reader thinks a bridge too far with pumpkin spice is “when everything, everywhere you go, has synthetic pumpkin spice fragrance on it.”

“Synthetic fragrances are toxic and an assault on many people who can’t breathe and get headaches and other awful symptoms from fragrance chemicals,” the person said. “If it’s natural and organic nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon, and it is in a natural food, then I like it. I get hella sick from the fake scents and artificial fragrance, though.”

Calling fragrance chemicals “the new secondhand smoke,” another Patch reader said a bridge too far when it comes to pumpkin spice is a “fragranced chemical (expletive)storm limiting public access to people who can’t safely be exposed to the profit-geared toxins and perfumed pollutants.”

Oh, yeah, another reader agreed, saying, “Anything scented with this fake crud is just adding more toxins to what is already a soup of chemically laden toxic scents we get hit with on a daily basis.”

An Across America Patch reader said there’s no escape from “the chemical-laden, artificial fragrances and ‘natural flavors’ that are chemically produced.”

“If it is produced with whole foods like real cinnamon and real nutmeg, for instance, I have no problem,” the reader said. “It is all the unknown chemicals I have a huge problem with.”

Pumpkin Spice Creep, Or A Promise?

But does it have to start in shorts and sandals weather?

“We don’t need pumpkin spice creeping into the last few weeks of summer. At least wait until it is actually fall,” said a Point Pleasant (New Jersey) Patch reader who thinks pumpkin spice products for dogs are over the top.

A Buffalo Grove (Illinois) Patch reader said pumpkin spice products “need to go,” but is willing to compromise. “How about limiting it to October and November?”

A person who reads Washington DC Patch and several Virginia Patch sites said companies should restrain their enthusiasm and avoid “trotting it out before, say, Sept, 15 at the earliest.”

A Philadelphia Patch reader thinks starting the season in hot, steamy August is rushing it, but also said pumpkin spice is a “mostly artificial flavoring” that should be reserved for pies.

But for a person in New Jersey who reads Princeton Patch and West Windsor Patch, the early arrival of pumpkin spice season is a promise.

“When those PSLs come out in August, it brings me to a time that’s right around the corner of cool crisp mornings and sweaters,” the reader said.

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