PITTSBURGH — Come on, admit it. You’re so over the pumpkin-spice craze.
Seasonal beer, coffee drinks and cookies spiced with ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon are one thing. But when those cozy fall flavors sneak their way into a Kit Kit candy bar or a stick of Burt Bees lip balm or onto a pizza, you know it’s officially jumped the shark. Big time.
Which is why some of us were glad to hear that a new flavor will supposedly supplant pumpkin spice this fall — maple.
At least that’s what MarketWatch would have us (hopefully) believe, based on a report from the analytics company 1010data. It notes that even as pumpkin spice flavor continues to grow in popularity — to the tune of 49 percent more products a year — sales just aren’t holding pace.
Maple, meanwhile, “is surging.”
Measured against the same quarter last year, sales of maple-flavored beverages have almost doubled while maple-flavored cocktails have climbed 14.6 percent. Which might explain why beverage giants Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts debuted maple-pecan coffee drinks this fall. Dunkin’ also is featuring a 630-caloried Maple Sugar Bacon Breakfast Sandwich.