It’s that time of year again. Time for crunchy leaves, apple cider and pumpkin-flavored everything. Yes, pumpkin spice lattes are back in full force.
Every year Starbucks seems to release its famous PSL earlier and earlier. According to Starbucks’ official website, it came out Sept. 2 this year, a whole four days earlier than in 2013.
For the past four years, the coffee chain has been offering its most loyal fans early access to the drink before it’s released to the general public. This includes daily scavenger hunts to find clues that would reveal a code to get a PSL.
This year, PSL lovers are getting a lot of unnecessary shame for enjoying the fall beverage. The term “basic” has often been used to describe the young women who drink them.
“Being ‘basic’ means to be a follower of the majority and trends,” said Raelene Kajkowski, senior journalism major.
For those of us who actually enjoy the occasional PSL, being categorized as “basic” is insulting. Drinking a pumpkin spice latte doesn’t make a person unoriginal; some of us actually like how it tastes.
“I don’t see what the big deal is, it’s just a drink. I shouldn’t have to feel ashamed to buy one or two a season,” said Kristen Wilson, sophomore applied exercise science major.
Starbucks seems to be on practically every corner and even extends internationally. According to listdose.com, Starbucks holds the top spot for largest coffee chain with 13,200 stores in the U.S. alone.
This begs the question: Is Starbuck itself “basic”?
“Since Starbucks is on every corner and ‘basic’ already, they have cornered a market to influence the ‘basic’ who spends $100 on Starbucks every week,” said Brad Smit, a ’13 APU alum.
Smit also said he believes that since Starbucks sits on top of the coffee market, it can manipulate what consumers want when the seasons change.
“I only see this craze when all the promotion starts gearing up for the holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving and eventually Christmas and Hanukkah,” said Smit.
The pumpkin spice latte even has its own Twitter account, @TheRealPSL. The account has over 95,000 followers and nearly 10,000 tweets.
More than 29,000 tweets with the hashtag #pumpkinspice have been posted since August 2012, according to starbucks.com.
“The Internet has taken shaming people who like [PSL] to a new level this year,” Wilson said. “It’s annoying.”
The Internet is buzzing with talk of PSLs and the “basics” who buy them. Everyone from Buzzfeed to the Huffington Post to John Oliver, a British comedian, is discussing the phenomenon.
Buzzfeed alone has over seven stories written about the PSL.
Wilson said at one point she was seeing links and photos almost every other day on her Facebook feed about women her age being “basic” for liking pumpkin spice lattes.
A joke or two here and there is OK, even funny. But the Internet has taken to blowing the whole concept of “basics” and such lattes way out of proportion. At this point, it’s just overkill.
The seasonal beverage is so popular because it reminds us of fall. The PSL is the first of many holiday flavors to be released throughout the season at Starbucks, in the hopes of getting us into the holiday spirit.
“I don’t personally like them, but I don’t think we should shame those who do. They’re just another fall trend like wearing scarves and beanies,” Kajkowski said.
There is not as much hype or excitement about special-flavored drinks any other time of the year, just from September-January. This creates a high demand for these drinks because they are only offered for a limited time.
“Pumpkin spice lattes and all the hype attached to them that comes during the fall is a result of the start of something new,” Smit said.
If drinking a pumpkin spice latte makes people excited for the fall season, then they shouldn’t be shamed or made fun of for it. There is nothing wrong with looking forward to something that is only offered four months out of a year.