While there has long been Christmas in July, pumpkin spice mania is rapidly moving into a year-round phenomenon as products with the flavor seem to hit the shelves earlier every year.
Starbucks (SBUX), which first invented the trend of the Pumpkin Spice Latte in 2003, brought back the seasonal drink meant to celebrate October's pumpkin harvest on August 24 in 2021.
The loosely "fall" flavor combination of pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves has been served at the coffee giant at a time of flip phones and low-rise jeans but truly took off as a cultural phenomenon in the last decade.
Despite satirical connotations of pumpkin spice and a certain type of middle-class woman, the flavor has evolved from a Starbucks thing to something that is available on everything from hummus to the KFC Australia's Pumpkin Spice and Feta Twister.
For retailers, slapping pumpkin spice on a product can also bring in money. Food research firm Tastewise told Fast Company that there was a 45% rise in consumer interest in pumpkin spice products between October 2019 and October 2020 as well as a 221% rise in its appearance on menus during the same time period .
Where Have You Seen This Cookie Before?
While Starbucks is yet to reveal when the PSL is returning to its stores this year, other products with the flavor have already been hitting store shelves.
Oreo/TS
Even though they were discontinued by the Nabisco branch of the larger Mondelez (MDLZ) in 2017, the Oreo Pumpkin Spice Sandwich Cookies are now being brought back on August 15.
The cookies mirror the traditional Oreo cookie in form but feature a "festive pumpkin spice flavored cream" between two golden wafers already available in flavors like the regular Golden Sandwich Cookie.
"The cookie features the same golden OREO basecake fans love, but with a festive Pumpkin Spice flavored creme," reads the product description.
Oreo is one brand that continuously plays around with special and limited-edition flavors. In the last ten years, it's tried everything from the Waffle & Syrup Oreos to the Piña Colada Oreo Thins and the Root Beer Float Oreos.
As the pumpkin spice cookies will be available nationwide in August 2022 until "supplies last," it stands to reason that they may not last until October if they prove to be particularly popular.
So When's The Right Time For Some Pumpkin Spice?
Starbucks
While the peak of the "pumpkin spice craze" is often attributed to 2014, sales numbers of both the latte and adjacent products featuring the flavor are not going down.
A survey from business intelligence company Morning Consult also found that 25% of Americans feel that late August is the perfect time to start seeing pumpkin spice products.
"I don't think 'too soon' is a thing right now," Nic Climer, the executive creative director of the RAPP marketing agency that develops seasonal products for various fast food chains, told Morning Consult. "[...] If pumpkin spice is your thing, and your audience loves it, people need that extra zing in their life right now."
Other analysts, however, point that the early emergence of pumpkin spice flavors is just another example of "holiday creep" or retailers that use any break in celebrations to start marketing products associated with the next one.
One example is when, this year, Bath & Body Works BBWI sent out a mailer about this year's Halloween collection in July.
"Holiday sales represent, for most retail formats, between 20% and 30% of annual sales, so it’s the most important time of the year," Wharton business professor William S. Cody wrote as far back as 2006. "The key to success in the holidays is to be very aggressive: [getting out] of the gate earlier and earlier because you covet these profits and you want to be out in front."
