Think before you drink

What is really in a Pumpkin Spice Latte?

Rose Stoebner, Visual Arts Managing Editor

Every year around the beginning of September, Starbucks Coffee puts its hit seasonal drink back on the menu, the Pumpkin Spice Latte. However, if you are thinking to get one of these drinks, you might want to think twice.

The Pumpkin Spice Latte is a representation of the beginning of fall and all of its festivities. The drink has become extremely popular, with Starbucks making an average of $80 million off of it in recent years.

Junior Klein Johnson, a barista at Starbucks said, “Out of every ten drinks I make, probably eight of them are Pumpkin Spice Lattes.”  

Starbucks is usually very transparent with their customers, listing all the ingredients for most of their foods and drinks, but they refuse to put the ingredients for the Pumpkin Spice Latte on their website.

“They don’t know if they will get sick or cause them to have an allergic reaction, so they should list the ingredients,” junior Lauren Larson said.

This brings up a big concern for people who have allergies or are vegan. Without access to the ingredients they have no way to know what they are drinking.

“They should list the ingredients because people who have allergies need to know. I think they should make it totally vegan available to those who pride themselves on not eating animal products.” sophomore Elise Rossez said.

An article recently came out on Foodbabe.com revealing the true ingredients of the Pumpkin Spice Latte, sparking concern in many of Starbucks’ customers.

One of the main concerns that was brought up was caramel coloring level IV. It is one of the most dangerous ingredients in the beverage.  A test on mice The coloring has shown an increased risk of cancer when consumed at any level.

“I get caramel drinks all the the time and that’s not good, I probably won’t get caramel drinks anymore . . . I don’t see why they wouldn’t just change it,” Rossez said.

The International Agency For Cancer Research currently classifies the coloring as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”. In California, food or drink with 29 or more micrograms of 4-Mel is required to have a cancer warning label.

“They should not use it because it’s pointless. Nobody is even looking at the contents they’re just drinking it,” Larson said.

Another issue was that the Pumpkin Spice Latte contains absolutely no real pumpkin. Instead of pumpkin they use other spices and flavors to simulate the pumpkin.

“Its kinda weird that they call it the Pumpkin Spice Latte and it’s not pumpkin, ” Rossez said.

The flavor of the drink is created by using cinnamon, nutmeg and clove to emulate the taste of pumpkin or pumpkin based foods such as pumpkin pie.

Klein Johnson said, “It’s more of the money aspect. It costs a lot of money to switch over to an actual product.”

The latte is also very unhealthy in terms of the amount of sugar within it. A grande Pumpkin Spice Latte contains a startling 50 grams of sugar. According to the American Heart Association, the average person should only have about 25-35 grams of sugar a day.

“I think it’s gross and really unhealthy and they shouldn’t be selling them,” Larson said.

Nevertheless a Pumpkin Spice Latte every now and then wont kill you but keeping things in proportion is helpful

Rossez said, “I probably won’t get them as much, I still will get one or two because I like them, and I probably won’t get caramel things anymore either.”