Been online anytime in the past month and you've likely come across chatter about the drink of the fall, the pumpkin spice latte.
These days pumpkin spice isn't exclusive to a tasty caffeine beverage, it's used from food to drinks to home products, and it brings in quite the cash haul.
A new study timed to National Pumpkin Spice Day found sales are on the rise. Last year, in 2022, sales of products reached more than $800 million, up 42% compared to 2019.
The Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University combed through thousands of social media posts, paying close attention to memes, jokes and mania that surrounds pumpkin spice this time of the year.
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According to MSU's study, out of the roughly 21,000 social posts containing the words "pumpkin spice" or the hashtag #pumpkinspice that were analyzed, nearly half (45%) of these posts were positive, while 50% were considered neutral and only 5% were negative.
“The data shows that America still loves pumpkin spice despite the range and ubiquity of the flavor in many different categories,” said Dr. Yi Luo, who is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Media.
The autumnal favorite has regularly dominated fall for years, prompting countless products and tasty treats, like condoms, bath tissue, even potpourri.
When it comes to the renowned latte, know a cornerstone of coffee shops in the fall, one coffee company seems to get all the attention.
The MSU team said Starbucks still dominates online chatter now two decades after being credited with popularizing the drink.
"With the twentieth anniversary of the pumpkin spice latte, an assessment of current online reaction to the theme is particularly appropriate," the authors of the study say.
The Montclair team combed through thousands of social media posts and Google Trends data and found the coffee giant remains the "unchallenged king" over competitors when it comes to pumpkin spice. Researchers point out that in a highly saturated market, the coffee giant stands tall above its competitors: Dunkin, Wendy's and Dutch Bros.
“Thanks to Starbucks, pumpkin spice lattes have become synonymous with fall, and it wouldn’t be surprising to find that Americans anticipate a cozy cup of pumpkin spice latte in the fall, much like drinking a cup of hot chocolate in the winter," said Dr. Jin-A Choi, who is the Director of Data Analytics for the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication.
