Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte is back—and yes, it is still August, if you're worried you might have Rip Van Winkled your way into fall, a season that officially begins on Sept. 23. Starbucks brought the seasonal favorite back on Thursday, six days earlier than last year, Axios reports. Aug. 24 is tied with 2021 as the earliest date this decade for the return of the drink in the last decade. In 2015, it wasn't out until Sept. 8. Starbucks is celebrating 20 years since the drink was rolled out nationwide, reports the AP. It has spawned plenty of pumpkin spice-flavored imitators, some of which were rolled out last week or earlier at chains including Dunkin', Krispy Kreme, and 7-Eleven.
Forbes notes that pre-blended mixes of pumpkin pie spices for bakers have been sold by spice companies including McCormick since the 1930s, but the flavor "didn't really take off until Starbucks released its signature fall drink." This year, another variation is on Starbucks' fall menu, the iced pumpkin cream chai latte. According to CNBC, this has long been a "secret menu" item that people could get by adding pumpkin cream cold foam to iced chai lattes. Cold drinks now outsell hot drinks at the chain: In an earnings report last fall, Starbucks said cold drinks made up more than 75% of beverage sales.
Jason Fischer, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University, tells Axios that nostalgia could be why Starbucks is bringing the drink back earlier, even during a hot summer. "Maybe the enduring heat is a thing that just makes us imagine and crave that cooler weather and then it calls to mind pumpkin spice even earlier," Fischer says. (More Starbucks stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
