Who Invented the Pumpkin Spice Latte?

Written by

René Ostberg

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Britannica Editors

History

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There’s something about the spice profile in a classic pumpkin spice latte—a concoction of espresso, steamed milk, and a mix of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, or nutmeg. Each year Americans guzzle about 20 million Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes. The coffee chain debuted the drink in October 2003, but it wasn’t until 2015 that the PSL (as fans of the beverage call it) contained any actual pumpkin. Originally, its creators (an espresso development team headed by Starbucks director Peter Dukes) simply wanted to invent a fall-themed drink. Since its spices matched those in a traditional pumpkin pie, the creation was called “pumpkin spice latte.” The PSL was such a hit that other coffee chains followed suit (Dunkin’ introduced its own version in 2007), and it’s been appearing on many menus a little earlier each year.

Although Starbucks is credited with inventing the PSL, it’s impossible to know who was the first person to think of adding that particular mix of spices into a latte. After all, home cooks embark on all kinds of experiments. Also, many food cultures have traditional hot drinks that contain one or more of those very same spices. Arabic coffee, in particular, is often flavored with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, saffron, or cloves. Mexican coffee and hot chocolate are both spiced with cinnamon. Irish hot whiskey includes cloves, which are usually studded into a small wedge of lemon.

As for these spices’ association with the mighty pumpkin, several cookbooks from the 17th and 18th centuries feature pumpkin pie recipes that call for such flavorings. The Compleat Cook (c. 1658), a British cookbook authored by an unidentified “W.M.,” has a “Pumpion Pye” recipe that lists “a handful of Tyme, a little Rosemary, Parsley and sweet Marjoram” and “Cinamon, Nutmeg, Pepper, and six Cloves.” Amelia Simmons’s “pompkin” pie in her 1796 cookbook American Cookery calls for ginger and allspice, which comes from a tree whose dried berry has a flavor that resembles a combo of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Now skip ahead to the 1930s, when seasoning manufacturers such as Thompson & Taylor Spice Co. and McCormick & Company introduced pumpkin pie spice blends.

Apart from the question of who invented the particular spice mix of the PSL, there’s also the question of why consumers love it so much. For that, a 12th-century Roman Catholic nun from Germany has the answer. St. Hildegard of Bingen was an abbess, mystic, and all-around Renaissance woman (centuries before the actual Renaissance) whose numerous writings include treatises on medicine and natural history. In her Physica, which she compiled between 1151 and 1158, she describes the medicinal properties and health benefits of many plants. Hildegard’s entry for nutmeg offers a prescription to “calm all bitterness of the heart and mind, open your heart and impaired senses, and make your mind cheerful.” If that sounds like you after a few sips of a PSL, then read on.

Hildegard’s recipe calls for equal parts of nutmeg and cinnamon and a small amount of cloves mixed with whole wheat flour and water to make small cakes. “Eat them often,” she instructs. No wonder the Vatican declared her a “doctor of the church.” And get this: Her feast day is celebrated on September 17—just in time to kick off sweater weather.

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