Welcome to fall.
It’s the time of year when stomachs start to turn colors because of all the pumpkin spice products.
Once the domain of those squishy-squashy pies, pumpkin flavor is everywhere.
Coffee, tea, vodka, energy drinks.
Sausage, salsa, hummus, yogurt, ice cream, chewing gum, candy corn.
Peeps, Pringles, Pop-Tarts, Twinkies.
Dog treats, dish soap, lotion, shampoo.
Is nothing sacred when it comes to the pumpkin pandemonium?
Nope. Not even pumpkin seeds. These even come pumpkin spiced.
There’s even a name for it: “pumpkin creep,” a take on “seasonal creep” when retailers promote products earlier to expand sales.
Orange is the new black in terms of sales. According to Nielsen data, pumpkin product sales have grown 79 percent since 2011. Last year, 37 percent of Americans bought a pumpkin-flavored product, accounting for $361 million in sales.
Good gourd! That’s a lot of lattes.
The Herald did a taste test of some pumpkin-flavored goods, using workers as guinea pigs. No pumpkins were injured or hurled in the test.
Turns out many pumpkin products contain artificial flavoring or only traces of pumpkin anyway.
Want the real thing?
Eat pie.
Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @reporterbrown.
Taste test comments
Pumpkin Oreos: “An abomination of the holy wafer.” “Taste the same as the original Oreos.”
Pumpkin spice pizzelle Italian cookies: “Meh.” “Excellent.”
Trader Joe’s pumpkin spice salted caramels: “Tasted like biting into an unbaked pumpkin pie. It wasn’t pleasant.”
“Yummy! Nothing like taking a bite of that chocolate and having the soft filling meet you in the middle.”
Pumpkin tortilla chips: “Salty and crunchy, and the pumpkin added a savory element but it wasn’t too strong.”
“The tortilla chip is in no way improved by the addition of pumpkin pie flavoring. What was the creator of that thinking? Did they actually taste them before sending them out to the world?”
Chipotle pumpkin salsa: “Very nice kick to it.” “Craving a pumpkin beer to go with it.”
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