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We’ve entered pumpkin spice season, which makes summer-lovers cringe . . . while fall-lovers are trying to pretend they don’t have the A.C. on, while they get out their pinecone- and pumpkin-themed decorations.
Here’s a question for pumpkin spice latte aficionados: Do you care if your PSL contains ACTUAL pumpkin . . . or are you fine with whatever ingredients are in that delicious, mysterious pumpkin spice syrup?
TheTakout.com has a list of FOUR chains that DON’T use real pumpkin in their PSLs. They are:
1. Krispy Kreme. They openly admit to using “Pumpkin Pie Sauce,” and that there’s no real pumpkin.
2. McDonald’s. The ingredients are listed on their website and there’s no mention of squash . . . just “fructose, water, and propylene glycol, alongside caramel color and natural flavor.”
3. Dutch Bros Coffee. According Dutch Bros workers online, both the standard and sugar-free syrups used for their drinks come from Torani, which don’t contain any real pumpkin.
4. Dunkin’. Dunkin’ hasn’t officially unveiled this year’s pumpkin spice lineup . . . but in previous years, their PSLs contained the flavors of pumpkin but with no real pumpkin to be seen in the ingredient list.
So you know, Starbucks DOES add pumpkin puree to their PSLs. It wasn’t always that way. The original recipe from back in 2003 did NOT include real pumpkin, but they added pumpkin puree in 2015.
To be fair, there’s no pumpkin in McCormick pumpkin pie spice either. It’s cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Those are the classic ingredients for pumpkin spice, along with allspice sometimes.
