Do you love pumpkin spice?
Have you wondered when, where and how the pumpkin spice craze started?
Once upon a time, you'd only hear of pumpkin spice being in pies.
Not any more.....
Today, you can find pumpkin spice everything it seems: There are pumpkin spice lattes, breakfast cereals, doughnuts, yogurt-coated pretzels, pancakes, candy, even pizza and beer.
Where did pumpkin spice come from?
The first reference to what we now know as “pumpkin spice” can be traced back to 1796. That’s the year Amelia Simmons published “American Cookery,” regarded as the nation’s first cookbook. In it, she includes a recipe for “pompkin pudding,” a pie made with stewed pumpkin and spiced with ginger and nutmeg.
As Americans moved to urban areas during the Industrial Revolution and sought to maintain a connection with agrarian life, pumpkin pie — and the spices used in it — became an essential slice of Americana.
In the early 1990s, pumpkin spice began trending as a flavoring in coffee, introduced in the fall alongside other seasonal coffee specialties, such as cinnamon-hazelnut and eggnog.
Pumpkin-flavored items went from reaching 6 to 14.5 percent of U.S. restaurant menus from 2005 to 2015, according to Datassentials. National chains and fine dining restaurants are the biggest proponents of pumpkin, and when it comes to geography, the northeast tops every other region: 19 percent of restaurant menus there featured at least one item.
Pumpkin season is getting earlier each year, too. And we don’t mean the crop. At major chains, nearly 20 percent of all pumpkin food items now are introduced in August, when temperatures in many parts of the country still are sweltering.
Americans love their pumpkin. No other country consumes pumpkin as a seasonal food and beverage. Soon enough you'll find it year-round. But for now, it's a way of knowing we're getting ready for fall and the nostalgia of family, home, and the holidays.
At TikiTreats DC, we have pumpkin spice year round as a flavor you can add to your coffee or espresso. And when you have TikiTreats provide coffee or espresso catering in DC, MD or VA for your guests, you can have pumpkin spice as well. Pumpkins everywhere are smiling!
