Pumpkin spice, as a concept, has existed for more than a century, and has been linked to autumn for nearly as long.
I was able to figure this out in just a few minutes of scrolling on my phone, and I have to say that it bugged me to see the ease of the effort and how quickly it was apparent that Starbucks was being disingenuous. Saying that pumpkin spice and autumn “found each other” in 2003 is like claiming that Cookie Monster just recently, by random chance, developed an interest in baked goods.
The earliest reference to pumpkin spice that I found was a recommendation, from 1913, that if you want pumpkin pie but don’t have the main ingredient, just use carrot and pumpkin pie spices and it’ll taste the same. In another article, from October 1915, the writer suggested that a pumpkin pie without the signature flavors would be “Such heresy! It is the spice that gives zest to the entire compound!”—a clear signal that a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger has long been understood and appreciated as pumpkin (pie) spice.
The recipe hasn’t changed much over the years, aside from ratios, and by the 1930s, demand was such that companies started selling pumpkin pie spice as a prepackaged mix. Here’s just one of those products, advertised in autumn 1932:
Having a little container of this mix in the house was convenient for making pumpkin pies, but it also proved tempting for other baking efforts. It’s right there on the shelf, after all, so why not add a little shake to your muffins or cakes or what-have-you?
This is where pumpkin spice truly came into its own, some 90 years ago. Among many other examples, I found pumpkin spice layer cake featured on a menu in October 1936, and the same product in newspaper ads and recipes throughout the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, around the USA. Nearly all of these mentions appeared in the autumn months, and plenty of them made the connection explicit, like an ad from Hazleton, Pennsylvania in 1953 that touted pumpkin spice layer cake as an essential part of a Halloween party.
If pumpkin spice was common enough in those years, it officially hit mainstream popularity in 1964, when it was the not-so-secret ingredient in the peach pie recipe that won the Pillsbury Bake-Off. This new moment in the spotlight launched a hundred explanatory articles and trend pieces for anyone who may have previously been unaware of pumpkin spice:
At this point, I was getting genuinely annoyed with Starbucks, but I could also hear its executives and loyalists grumbling that, well, None of these recipes are lattes or coffee or even beverages.