Is Judging Pumpkin Spice Lattes Really a Judgement Of the Women Who Drink Them?

Spoiler alert: probably

I hope you enjoy reading The Sauce as much as I enjoy writing it. This is a reader-supported publication. Your paid subscriptions mean I have the time to research and write about food culture as an independent entity. No #sponcon, no shilling products I don’t care about, just a whole lot of commentary about how food and drink fit into modern society.

If I’m honest, I hoped no one saw me recently ducking into Starbucks for a research-purpose pumpkin spice latte (PSL).

What if someone I know sees me? What if that person walking past judges me and my cream-covered PSL? What must they think of me taking photos?

I also didn’t want to be considered that girl — the one who falls for Fall. The one who, as soon as the weather turns, pulls out the chunky knits and knee-high boots, and carries a PSL like it’s a status symbol.

That’s all a bit basic, isn’t it?

Then I realised I was being super judgemental. What’s worse, I was being judgemental about the very group of people I spend much of my writing career advocating for.

Women.

Generally, pumpkin spice lattes are considered a female-centric foodstuff. They’re called a white girl stereotype. A basic bitch of a drink.

We judge them hard.

But our ridicule of PSLs — or more accurately, the women who drink them — are indicative of a wider problem. When we judge pumpkin spice lattes we run the risk of judging the women who drink them and their perceived “less-than” food choices.

We should be doing no such thing. And that is a note for me as much as anyone else.

What do rosé wine, pumpkin spice lattes and cupcakes all have in common?

They are all considered “girly” foodstuffs.

The reality of working in food and wine means that I see gender lines drawn in the baking spices every single day.

Just ask the guy I met in a bar last weekend who called rosé wine “girly.”

And with gendered food comes a tendency to elevate “manly” and ridicule “girly” foodstuffs. As food writer Jaya Saxena says in her excellent essay Women Aren’t Ruining Food:

When men enjoy something, they elevate it. But when women enjoy something, they ruin it.

Coffee is a great example. Speciality coffee — a place where deep dive geekery is not only encouraged but expected — is considered a largely male-dominated space. If you tried to dissect the intricacies of a PSL in a speciality coffee shop, it would not go down well.

There’s a reason I had to duck into Starbucks and not one of my regular specialty coffee shops for my recent PSL.

It’s as the Guardian’s Emma Beddington says:

Women (who drink PSLs) are dismissed as vapid sheeplike materialists, while men who make pour-over coffee that tastes like stomach acid in vessels that wouldn’t be out of place in a 17th-century alchemist’s workshop are discerning, rugged individualists.

The same happens with almost any other “girly” food you can think of. Smoothie bowls. Cupcakes. Fruity cocktails. Every single one has been the subject of ridicule. Every single one has found itself on a “basic bitch” Pinterest board or listicle.

I’ll admit that I too have been guilty of ridiculing these foodstuffs at one time or another.

Which is precisely my point. Judging “girly” food is so baked (pun intended) into our culture that no one is immune from it. The reality is that it’s unfair to judge like this. And it’s certainly unfair to judge women who drink pumpkin spice lattes.

By doing so, we run the risk of overlooking very valid — very important — reasons why so many women crave pumpkin spice lattes in the first place.

It’s not about the PSL. It’s about what the PSL represents

The second I smelled the cinnamon on top of my pumpkin spice latte, I smelled my childhood. I smelled nostalgia. I thought of crisp sunny days and falling leaves. The pumpkin spice latte feeds into a nostalgia-tinged illusion of Fall. And nostalgia is so deliciously wonderful because it reminds us of the age of our Lord, BR.

Before Responsibility.

It’s no wonder women in particular crave the nostalgia that comes part and parcel of Fall — and by extension, pumpkin spice lattes.

Women’s lives are full. Our responsibilities are far-reaching and never-ending. It’s exhausting.

But Fall is what psychologists call a temporal landmark — a mark in time where a better, more hopeful future feels just a PSL away.

Psychologists also attribute the popularity of Fall to the comfort of returning to a steady routine. Kids go back to school. Things are (generally) less hectic. Household order is restored. Considering women still take on the lion’s share of childcare and household labour, it’s no wonder some of them have a particular love for this time of year. And if the pumpkin spice latte is the official drink of Fall, it stands to reason they would be incredibly popular with women.

Food is rarely just fuel. It can evoke emotion and make us feel just a little bit better than we did before we ate the cookie or drank the PSL.

If that food is tinged with nostalgia, of course we’re going to want it. For many women, nostalgia is about forgetting, just for a moment, that they have responsibilities that more than fill every hour of the day.

My brain is incredibly visual so the second I got a whiff of those baking spices, I was six years old again and wrapped in a blanket. I was sat with my mum on the sofa.

I wasn’t worrying about money, work or relationships. In that moment, I wasn’t worrying about anything. I was back in that safe space. A time before my emotional load became almost too much to bear.

What woman wouldn’t want that?

Quality pumpkin spice lattes? Now there’s a thought

My nostalgic moment was short-lived. Once I got below the whipped cream and cinnamon, I got a taste of below-average coffee masked with a lot of milk and sugar.

Frankly, I’m not surprised. The dirty little secret of female-centric versus male-centric food is that we are expected to suck up poor quality versions whilst men are free to spend a small fortune on quality “manly” meals.

This could be because many female-centric foods are sweet. This is possibly because allegedly, women crave sweeter foods than men. And it is possible to argue that quality is less of an issue in sweet food.

After all, we learn early on in the wine trade that sugar hides a multitude of sins.

But why is it that when I want to indulge in female-centric foods, I have to settle for a bad-quality version?

Think about fruit-based cocktails, another female-centric product. I know from my time working behind the bar these are usually made with bottom-shelf spirits because fruit juice masks the bitterness.

Compare that to a typically manly cocktail like an Old-Fashioned, which will generally be made with a quality whisky.

It’s not fair to palm women off with the poor quality stuff — and charge a fortune for the privilege (PSLs are not cheap) — and assume we’re OK with it. Even if some of us are OK with it, that doesn’t make it right. Quality belongs to us all, regardless of what is going on between our legs.

And yes, that includes our pumpkin spice lattes. Because if you’re going to get nostalgic, you might as well do it right with a decent hit of coffee.

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We love to hate an oversaturated market and pumpkin spice certainly falls into that category. During my research, I found pumpkin spice beers, Oreos, candles, multi-purpose cleaners and even pumpkin spice Pringles.

The PSL is the OG pumpkin spice product so it’s unsurprising it gets so much hate.

But it isn’t cool that we put women in that particular firing line too. That we judge women for loving this symbol of Fall. A time that signifies all good things for women.

Things like kids back in school and more routine. Things like nostalgia for a time when nothing mattered but kicking up leaves and hot chocolate with cinnamon.

As for me and my PSL experience, I won’t be repeating it. Not because I’m embarrassed by them (at least, not anymore) but simply because they’re not my thing.

But the next time I see a woman gulping one down, I’ll think twice about judging them. Because now, I know — it’s not just about the pumpkin spice.

It’s what the pumpkin spice represents.

And who am I to deny a woman a moment of peace and nostalgia in this chaotic world?