Haters Call Pumpkin Spice Craze an Epidemic

Wall Street Journal ^ | 11/26/2014 | Ilan Brat

[cyclotic]

It used to be easy for people like Kristen D’Amico, who can’t stand the taste of pumpkin pie. She merely had to say no to a slice of it on Thanksgiving Day.

Not anymore.

A rising tide of products flavored with pumpkin pie spice has flooded grocery store shelves and restaurant menus, and not just near her home in Deltona, Fla. Friends tease the 34-year-old stay-at-home mother with gleeful photos and text messages about pumpkin lattes, coffee creamers and pies. Relatives mock her, she says, at Thanksgiving dinner for shunning pumpkin in all its forms.

The pumpkin craze “really is an epidemic,” she says, adding that she must have missed the indoctrination session where people “were brainwashed, and I’m like, ‘What’s wrong with these people?’ ”

[cyclotic]

This could have been written about me. A few weeks ago, we were set to join our Trail Life USA troop on a service project. We were going to a local farm that uses volunteers to harvest much of their crop and donates it all to local food banks. We were scheduled to pick potatoes. At breakfast, I was telling my wife how disgusted I was with pumpkin EVERYTHING and how gross some of it sounded. We left and on the way found out that our group got shifted to the pumpkin patch. I helped pick several truckloads of the disgusting orange things. Unngghhh!

[rhinohunter]

I blame Starbucks

[Pilated]

other than pie, bread or jack-o-lantern I too dislike the smell and taste of pumpkin.

[oblomov]

There isn’t any pumpkin in a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte.

[cyclotic]

Here’s an e-mail my wife just sent me.

The issue for the marketers is that Thanksgiving has never had a way to make big money. When they finally found pumpkin, they have to go with it - it’s all they have. At least this keeps us from jumping from Halloween to Christmas. Now we have a little pumpkin to add Thanksgiving in the middle.

She’s trying to justify it.

[GeronL]

the only thing I want is a slice of pie with whipped cream on top

[cyclotic]

I wouldn’t know.

1. Hate pumpkin
2. Don’t go to Starbucks.

I’ve actually got a gift card in my wallet for the last 2 years. There are two Starbucks within 50 yards of my office.

I do like going in and ordering a Medium Coffee. Seems they can’t handle that.

[Cowboy Bob]

Pumpkin Spice? The forgotten Spice Girl?

[discostu]

I don’t know about epidemic but it ‘s over the top. And of course the pumpkin spice is NOT pumpkin flavor (which they really don’t have any), it’s the spices you put in pumpkin pie. As long as it sticks to things of a pastry nature (breads, cookies, pies obviously) I’m OK with it. But the further away you get from that the more likely it is to just be nasty.

[NewHampshireDuo]

I can’t eat anything that tastes like pumpkin.

[discostu]

There isn’t any pumpkin in ANYTHING pumpkin spice. It’s just the spices you put in pumpkin pie, all spice, cinnamon, sugar, that stuff.

[cyclotic]

I did find out the pumpkins make really good targets for throwing knives.

[Cincinatus]

Love pumpkin pie, HATE pumpkin beer.

[Sirius Lee]

I’ll eat pumpkin flavored, just about anything. Pie, bread, beer, cake, coffee, cookies, coffee...well, I guess I’ve exhausted the list, but I wouldn’t be caught dead in a place like Starbucks or its ilk.

[dainbramaged]

Give me a pecan pie anytime over pumpkin.

[Justa]

They’re just warming up for the ‘I hate the smell of Christmas’ meme.

What’s a post-modern holiday to a progressive without a show of hatred? It’s intolerable.

I’d send her butt into the yard with a bucket of fried chicken or whatever she stuffs her face with to spare the kids and innocents her poison.

[left that other site]

Every day, Lynn-dah-the-dog and i take a little walk to the management office of my complex. They have a single serve coffee maker, and I always get a cup of black coffee for the mile back to our apartment.

The other day I tried Pumpkin Spice.

JUST NASTY!

(I oured it out after one tentative sip) }:-[<<<<<

[SamAdams76]

I have a different opinion on this.

Pumpkins are in great abundance. In the autumn, we see miles and miles of pumpkin patches driving on the county roads.

In the past, they were mostly used for Halloween. People would buy them, carve them, toss out the innards and mount them on their front porches for trick or treating.

I think it's a great thing that we are now using pumpkins as a food source. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin beer, pumpkin cider, pumpkin muffins, etc, etc. Then you have pumpkin seeds which are not only tasty but you when roasted, you can eat them shell and all.

What's wrong with that?

I say let's discover more uses for the great American pumpkin.

[dfwgator]

[RayChuang88]

Hazelnut or cinnamon flavor in coffee is not bad if used in moderation. But pumpkin spice--no thank you!