Has America Hit Peak Pumpkin?
In the freezer, bags of pumpkin spice coffee—apparently, there was a deal. Above, pumpkin spice creamer, pumpkin spice bagels, and pumpkin spice cream cheese to go on it.
All while smelling those little pumpkin spice wax cubey things that are melting all over the house.
When AgDay host Clinton Griffiths was a kid, his mom never bought pumpkin spice anything except pumpkin spice which she used in the pumpkin pie!
This obsession with pumpkin spice has gone from the coffee lines of Starbucks where every Tri-Delt in town stood in their Ugg boots cuddled in a scarf waiting for fall to kick off a season-long obsession of Venti PSL’s to build your own pumpkin spice hotdogs. Yes, that’s right—pumpkin spiced grilling meat. Frankly, I’m worried. Did you know there are now even pumpkin spice cough drops?
They say this obsession is now worth roughly $500,000. The use of the spice in food is up tenfold since 2004.
What is pumpkin spice anyway? The spice is made of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice. It does not include pumpkin! It’s the spice that goes in the pie, not the pumpkin itself. Although this little seasonal guilty pleasure is helping move fresh pumpkin as well. According to Nielson fresh pumpkin sales hit $121 million last year up 5 percent year-over-year. Nielson says it looks like growth in this category is slowing down and they’re even asking whether 2017 will be the year we see peak pumpkin.
That remains to be seen—but if Clinton's house is any indication—this little addiction has room to run.
As they say in my home country—Happy Fall Ya’ll.
