The pumpkin spice onslaught begins a month early.
Every fall season, without fail, the specter of pumpkin spice descends upon us once again. It starts with Starbucks bringing back their signature pumpkin spice latte, and then just sort of gradually escalates from there until everything is a spicy pumpkin. If you were hoping you’d have a solid month before the terror resumes when fall begins on September 22, you might want to start stocking up on non-pumpkin spice snacks now, because Starbucks is pulling the trigger early this year.
Yesterday, Starbucks announced the official return date of the pumpkin spice latte to their locations: right now. As of today, August 24, the pumpkin spice latte is now available again at all participating Starbucks locations, alongside the pumpkin spice cold brew, one of the chain’s newer spicy pumpkin creations. August 24 is now the earliest day of the year Starbucks has ever began offering the pumpkin spice latte, beating out their previous record by a single day.
However, remarkably, Starbucks actually isn’t the first pumpkin spice slinger up to bat this year. Dunkin’ has been selling pumpkin spice beverages since August 18, an early bird record of their own, and various grocery stores around the country have already begun stocking the fall-themed snacks, including pumpkin spice stuff. It’s kinda like Christmas in July, except pumpkin spice isn’t a holiday. Yet.
The date has officially fall-in! Starting tomorrow Aug. 24th, pumpkin returns to Starbucks stores across the U.S. and Canada, including the fall favorite duo Pumpkin Spice Latte and Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew.🎃https://t.co/7bMXAGDGhk
— Starbucks News (@StarbucksNews) August 23, 2021
While this may seem like a strange move, it seems people are eager to get into the fall spirit, even though summer isn’t actually over yet. Last week, Home Depot mentioned in an earnings call that, after unveiling their new line of early adapter online Halloween products, they sold out almost immediately. I guess people just really want it to be fall already.