Jacqui Frank Pumpkin Spice Latte season has unofficially begun.
On Thursday, September 1, customers can begin ordering the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks locations across the US.
The seasonal beverage won't be on Starbucks' menu until September 6, but the company has begun promoting the drink on its mobile app and through the official PSL twitter account. You don't have to have the app or be a member of the chain's loyalty program to order the drink - you just need to know that it is now possible to order the Pumpkin Spice Latte, if you so choose.
This is the 13th year that Starbucks is selling the Pumpkin Spice Latte as a fall seasonal beverage. Since 2003, the chain has sold roughly 200 million cups of the latte, making it the chain's most popular seasonal beverage of all time. Multiplying that figure by the cost of a $5.25 grande would mean the chain has made more than a billion dollars on the beverage.
Over the years, the Pumpkin Spice Latte - or the PSL, as loyal fans refer to the beverage - has become an essential part of autumn, with its launch symbolically marking the end of summer and the beginning of fall.
"Summer is going away, a lot of people are going back to school, so there's a lot of sadness," Starbucks' coffee education specialist Mackenzie Karr told Business Insider. "When Pumpkin Spice was invented, [Starbucks] really wanted to do something that made fall iconic."
According to Karr, the drink was created by a Starbucks team trying to pin down what constituted a "fall-y" flavor while brainstorming ideas for a new espresso-based seasonal beverage. The team sat with a pumpkin pie on one side and an espresso machine on the other, alternating shots of espresso and bites of pie in an attempt to deconstruct how best to combine the two flavors.
The creators of the Pumpkin Spice Latte never expected the resulting drink to become an autumnal icon. Now, however, Starbucks is benefitting from the 13 years it has spent establishing the PSL as an essential part of fall.
Jacqui Frank
"It's a tradition," says Karr. "Similar to football around Thanksgiving, or dressing up for Halloween, it's something that people have incorporated into their lifestyles. It's become part of their seasonal routine."
Because the Pumpkin Spice Latte has gone from trend to tradition, it's not something Starbucks will cut from the menu any time soon. While the beverage has become increasingly omnipresent, even outside of Starbucks, the coffee giant says it isn't yet over-hyped and that customers are still demanding the drinks.
There is just one thing that Starbucks won't do to meet the demands of eager Pumpkin Spice fans: sell the drink year round.
"I think that if it was available year round, it wouldn't have nearly that kind of cult following," says Karr.