Maple Pecan Is Coming For Pumpkin Spice’s Spot In The Fall Flavor Wars

Look, we hit peak pumpkin spice years ago. When people legitimately thought Durex made pumpkin spice condoms without any inkling of irony, we should have shut it down. But, it continued and now there are pumpkin spice fries at McDonald’s in Japan. Whoever came up with that is the Oppenheimer of the culinary world. But, we may finally have the hero we need to displace the ubiquitous fall flavoring, and it is maple pecan.

On September 21, Starbucks unveiled the Maple Pecan Latte, a “warming blend of signature espresso and steamed milk combined with notes of maple syrup and pecan, and finished with a colorful autumn topping.” Orange sugar. A colorful autumn topping is orange sugar. Joining Starbucks in the effort to push maple is Dunkin’ Donuts, who started serving both hot and cold maple pecan coffee options this month.

And it goes beyond drink launches. The Chicago Tribune published data from Technomics Menu Monitor and “mentions of maple as a flavor in nonalcoholic beverages on menus are up 86 percent this year over last […] Pumpkin mentions, on the other hand, are down 20 percent.”

However, it seems premature to predict a full fall flavor coup. Despite the fact that pumpkin spice supply outpaces demand among consumers, the people who make the demands are a loyal bunch who roll hard for the fall flavor. Maple is good. Pecans are good. Together, they are wonderful. But, people literally spent days watching a livestream of a pumpkin on a nest as part of the PSL launch this year. Who does that? Die-hard fans.

Also, the hype about a new flavor or drink unseating pumpkin spice lattes comes up every year. I don’t see many of us chugging tumeric lattes, do you? As with all things, time will tell, but Maple Pecan best not get too comfortable… yet.

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