Peak pumpkin spice: B.C. coffee shop offers fall treat in mid-August

Autumn may not officially arrive until Sept. 23, but don't tell that to fans of the pumpkin spice latte: popular demands means the seasonal drink is being added to coffee shop menus earlier than ever.

"We've been getting a lot of requests for it," said Rhiannon Primeaux, manager of Cafe Voltaire in Prince George, B.C. who said customers first started asking for the drink in early August. 

As the requests became more frequent, Primeaux decided to add pumpkin spice to the specials board on Aug. 20 and "within five minutes" the orders started rolling in. 

Primeaux thinks with temperatures already dipping as low as 3 C overnight, people in Prince George are feeling a fall chill in the air, leading to thoughts of pumpkin spice.

But she also thinks the flavour has become the subject of marketing hype, as companies try to sell pumpkin spice in everything from air freshener to alcohol.

"They have whiskey now that's pumpkin spice flavoured," she said. "Somebody made a beer. My sister and I tried making pumpkin spice mac and cheese once. It wasn't the greatest."

Pumpkin spice pessimists

Since its October 2003 debut at Starbucks, the hype around when the first pumpkin spice lattes will be sold has become a major marketing event with competing coffee chains trying to beat each other to the punch — and customers' wallets.

U.S. coffee chain Dunkin' Donuts was the first major vendor out of the gate this year, rolling out the drinks on Aug. 22.

Soon after, Starbucks confirmed the lattes would be on their menus on Aug. 27, their earliest official pumpkin spice launch ever.

And while fans expressed joy at the news, other voices wondered on social media if the drink was coming out too soon.

Embracing the season

"I think they're feeling that someone's telling them that summer's over," said Jonita Hayer, a Prince George-based lifestyle blogger, of the pumpkin spice pessimists.

"Someone's dictating and telling them when and what to do."

Though she understands their concerns, Hayer doesn't share them: she's already decorating her house for the fall, complete with seasonal squashes.

"We go to farms and get different types of pumpkins," she said. "We even planted wheat outside our house."

And that, Hayer said, is one reason she doesn't believe August is too soon to break out the pumpkin spice.

For people living on farms, it's a month of preparing for the fall harvest. And while she's not growing her own food, decorating and preparing drinks help tie her to the natural world.

"I like to come home and feel the season in my house. That's really important to me," she said.

Hayer's advice is to do what makes you happy, whether that means treating August as time to get a jump on autumn decorating or to try and hold onto the last few days of summer.

That's Primeaux's approach as well: When asked whether she felt August was too early for pumpkin spice, she replied, "You're asking somebody who drinks a peppermint mocha all year long."

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