The rumors have been swirling for a while now. They’re something along the lines of: “Did you know pumpkin spice doesn’t actually have pumpkin?!” Gasps! Horror! Disbelief!

Is that true? Well, unsurprisingly, the answer is not so black and white …

Let’s address the first question:

Are Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes Made with Real Pumpkin?

The answer is YES, there is real pumpkin in Starbucks PSL. The catch is that it’s Japanese pumpkin, more commonly known in the United States as kabocha squash.

In 2023, Starbucks shared that since 2015, their pumpkin sauce has indeed contained pumpkin in the form of kabocha squash puree. Kabocha is a small to medium green squash with very sweet, slightly nutty flavor, and it’s one of the most popular squashes in the world. Read more about kabocha squash here.

The list of ingredients for Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte is milk, pumpkin spice sauce, espresso, whipped cream, vanilla syrup, and pumpkin spice topping. (source)

Within the pumpkin spice sauce, the ingredients are sugar, condensed skim milk, pumpkin puree (there’s your kabocha squash!), fruit and vegetable juice for color, natural flavors, annatto, salt, and potassium sorbate.

The pumpkin spice topping has cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.

Now, on to the next question.

Is There Always Real Pumpkin in Pumpkin Spice?

The answer is, it depends.

Many food and drink items are labeled as Pumpkin Spice and do indeed contain real pumpkin, such as my pumpkin spice cookie recipe or pumpkin spice coffee syrup.

Then there is pumpkin spice blend, which is generally a blend of spices only, meant to enhance the flavors in pumpkin pie or myriad other pumpkin goodies.

Pumpkin spice generally contains cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Some might also add allspice, mace, or cardamom. I share all about the spices in pumpkin pie spice in my article, What Is in Pumpkin Pie Spice? Recipe & Info.

A bowl of pumpkin pie spice mix with a small wooden spoon in it

So, while there isn’t real pumpkin in pumpkin pie spice blend, and some pumpkin spice foods may ONLY have the spices and not pumpkin, other “pumpkin spice” foods such as Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte DO have real pumpkin.

I hope this info spiced up your day with a little pumpkin knowledge! 🎃

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