Pumpkin Pie Spice

I didn’t make coffee this morning, so my headachy mind wandered toward Starbucks. I read an interesting rant on Facebook the other day, and it made me laugh because it’s obvious to me, but it may not be obvious to anyone who’s never made a pie or drank a latte.

There is no pumpkin in “pumpkin spice.” These are the spices one uses to make pumpkin pie, after adding the huge can(s) of pureed pumpkin. When you see pumpkin spice, in most instances, it’s not pumpkin. It’s nutmeg and cinnamon, and other spices, but no pumpkin. There is, however, some pureed pumpkin in a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks.

Mmm…Starbucks.

The specific rant: It should be called pumpkin pie spice, not pumpkin spice. There’s no spice in pumpkins. The counter-argument: Then we would want pie instead of a latte. Part of the draw of pumpkin spice is we don’t want to know what’s in it.

I’m still headed to Starbucks, for a caramel latte. Nothing beats my year-round favorite. I don’t care what time of year it is. (Except it’s still Freddie Days, so here’s a Freddie latte.)