By Blair Smith, Staff Writer
Every year, fall is expressed with pumpkin spice, cinnamon, nutmeg and new Starbucks coffee flavors. Every nook and cranny of the grocery store is turned into pumpkin spice mania: cakes, cookies, coffee, sausage, even dog treats!
And now, oil changes and even sermons are being promoted with pumpkin spice.
Coastal Fast Lube is participating in the frenzy for the second year in a row. The employees had their “Pumpkin Spice Oil Changes Are Back!” sign on the marquee again before changing it to a Hurricane Matthew theme and now to a Halloween focus.
“We thought it was funny,” owner Katy Appleman said. “We do all of our signs because they think they are funny.”
Kitty Hawk Baptist Church promoted a “Pumpkin Spice Sermon” one week in September.
“Everywhere I went, I was seeing pumpkin spice,” Pastor Don Tears said. “Starbucks had a pumpkin spice latte, and McDonald’s had pumpkin spice milkshakes, I got an ad that came in for pumpkin spice pretzels. It was just everywhere.”
Jill Tears, the pastor’s wife, said her husband took advantage of the pumpkin spice frenzy to make a point to his congregation.
“It was based on his series of sermons in Psalms,” she said. “It talks about prayer being a sweet aroma, and during this season the sweet aroma is pumpkin spice.”
The pastor bought pumpkin spice candles and lit them for the church service.
“I told the folks how our prayer is a sweet aroma unto the Lord, so it was a reminder how we ought to pray,” he said.
Not everyone enjoys pumpkin spice, though. Sophomore Summer Banning tried pumpkin when she was younger and has disliked it ever since.
“I don’t like the taste,” Banning said. “I think it tastes like dirt.”
Math teacher Jennifer Kinnisten has never liked the fruit.
“It’s disgusting! I don’t like the flavor of pumpkin spice,” Kinnisten said. “It’s not pleasing to the pallet at all. Think about carving pumpkins with all the guts: What is appealing about that?”
Ironically, Kinnisten observes the Halloween tradition of pumpkin carving with her family even though it makes her gag.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 2014 farmers produced 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins. Non-pumpkin lovers might cringe if they heard that. In 2015, pumpkin spice product sales came to a whopping $361 million, according to CNBC.com.
Junior Lauren Taylor, who works at Duck’s Cottage, explained that many people come in during this time of year just for pumpkin spice lattes.
“It’s repetitive, but not annoying,” she said.
Perhaps sophomore Peyton Mull will be a future customer. Although she doesn’t like pumpkin, Mull is still trying to find a good pumpkin spice latte.
“I don’t like pumpkin – it tastes like what a thrift store smells like,” she said. “I probably will try it again because I’ve never had anything good that tastes like pumpkin, so I will continue to search for the perfect pumpkin spice latte.”
So what do you think? Pumpkin spice – naughty or nice?
Sophomore Blair Smith can be reached at smithas0621@daretolearn.org.
