Pumpkin Spice

Love it or hate it, pumpkin spice season is upon us in the United States. But it has been loved (or hated) longer than many realize. Indeed, Starbucks, which trots out its Pumpkin Spice Latte earlier each year, did not invent or even spread pumpkin spice throughout the U.S. and beyond. 

Rather, pumpkin spice, and the ingredients that go into it i.e. cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg have been around and have been used by societies for thousands of years. Despite its ubiquity in America, none of the component spices that constitute pumpkin spice originate in the U.S. 

Miomir Magdevski, Wikimedia Commons, 2019

Rather, all of these spices hail from different parts of Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Cinnamon originates in Sri Lanka, nutmeg comes from the Spice Islands, ginger is from countries in Asia, such as India and China, and cloves were found on the Moluccas Islands, part of current day Indonesia. It was through early traders in Asia, the Middle East and Europe that these spices spread throughout the world. Many of these spices arrived in Europe during Roman times, if not beforehand, and they were often used as medicinal curatives to treat all manner of ailments. Cinnamon, for example, was used as a digestive aid, as well as a remedy for sore throats. During the medieval period, these spices were still being used to treat medical conditions, but they were also increasingly being integrated into food and beverages. Ginger, for example, was used to ward off the plague, and was also popularly used to flavor beer. It should be noted that the relative rarity of spices meant that they were almost exclusively available to the elite and aristocrats, who were the only ones who could afford the expensive foreign spices. The rise of the Dutch trading empire and the dominance of the Dutch East India Company brought greater access and availability of trade routes and with them higher quantities of spices to the European market. Chief among these was the Dutch “discovery” of nutmeg on the Spice Islands and subsequent control of the export of the spice to the rest of the world. 

Ensiklopedia Britannica, Wikimedia Commons, 21 August 2024 

European traders, particularly the Spanish and the Portuguese, meanwhile were exploring and exploiting the natural resources and people on the other side of the world in what would become known as the Americas. Early explorers such as Christopher Columbus brought back the riches from the New World, which included unknown produce native to the Americas, including potatoes, corn, and pumpkins. Indeed, these Atlantic sojourns resulted in what is now known as the “Columbian Exchange” in which many consumable flora and fauna crossed between the two continents, creating agricultural sharing on a tremendous scale. 

Pumpkins quickly took route throughout Europe, finding particular fertile ground in Britain, Scotland, and Wales. Early British and Scottish cookbooks from the mid 17th century onwards show the use of pumpkins in sweet and savory dishes.These recipes also incorporated a combination of spices known as “mixed spices”, or “sweet spices”, which would have included cinnamon, ginger and other spices. 

When the British colonists arrived on the shores of what would become the United States, they found the now familiar pumpkins being grown by Native Americans. The indigenous people expertly used pumpkins as a part of a tri-part approach to agriculture known as “the three sisters method”, which included maize and beans. As corn grows, the beans climb the corn stalks, steading them in the process and adding nitrogen to the soil, and the pumpkins grow below the corn stalks, protecting its roots. Colonists quickly incorporated the pumpkin into their regular diet, eating dishes such as stewed pumpkins, dried pumpkins, and pumpkin ale.

By the late 1700s, pumpkin consumption had also grown to include a version of pumpkin pie, which was an early version of what many Americans eat today during Thanksgiving celebrations. The first cookbook to be published in America, American Cookery, was written by Amerlia Simmons. It contained two versions of a recipe for pumpkin pie or “Pompkin”, which is familiar to twenty-first century audiences: 

_Pompkin_.

No. 1. One quart stewed and strained, 3 pints cream, 9 beaten eggs,

sugar, mace, nutmeg and ginger, laid into paste No. 7 or 3, and with a

dough spur, cross and chequer it, and baked in dishes three quarters

of an hour.

No. 2. One quart of milk, 1 pint pompkin, 4 eggs, molasses, allspice

and ginger in a crust, bake 1 hour.

The recipe contains spices familiar to us today, which contribute to what we know as “pumpkin pie spice” or “pumpkin spice”.

Fast forward 138 years to 1934, when the American company McCormick & Co. started to mass produce and market its “Pumpkin Spice” blend. It is an all-in-one spice mixture that contains all of the individual spices common to pumpkin pie today, namely the blend contains cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. Five years earlier in 1929, another American company, the Libby Company, began producing canned pumpkin. The creation of canned pumpkin and the mass produced spice mix made it convenient and less expensive for housewives to make pumpkin pies, a holiday favorite that makes an appearance on many American family’s tables in November for Thanksgiving celebrations. Today, 80% of McCormick & Co.’s Pumpkin Spice blend is sold in the lead up to Thanksgiving. 

Stephen Witherden, Wikimedia Commons, 23 November 2006

Pumpkin spice flavored and scented products are incredibly popular throughout the United States. So much so that food manufacturers mark up pumpkin spice products by 14% compared with similar products that are not pumpkin spice related. This is known as a “pumpkin spice tax”, which enables manufacturers to gain added profits from America’s pumpkin spice craze in the autumn. 

The popularity of the gourd even inspired the Hormel corporation to create Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice SPAM in 2019. The special, hard to find product enabled the company to cater to avid fans who love both the processed product and the spiced squash, while endeavoring to attract a new audience for its pressed pork product.

References: 

Miomir Magdevski, Wikimedia Commons, 2019, File:Spices on Spice Bazaar in Istanbul 03.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

Giles Milton, Nathaniel’s Nutmeg: or, The True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History (New York: Picador, 2015).

Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikimedia Commons, 21 August 2024, https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Columbian-Exchange/632098

Trish Thomas,“The Sweet and Spicy History of Pumpkin Spice”, Williamsburg Walking Tours, November 29, 2021, https://williamsburgwalkingtours.com/the-sweet-and-spicy-history-of-pumpkin-spice/

 Rosane Oliveira, “10 things you probably didn’t know about pumpkins”, University of California, October 25, 2018, https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/10-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-pumpkins#:~:text=Scientists%20believe%20that%20pumpkins%20originated,food%20staple%20among%20Native%20Americans.

 Ellen Terrell, “A Brief History of Pumpkin Pie in America, Library of Congress, November 20, 2017, https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2017/11/a-brief-history-of-pumpkin-pie-in-america/

Amelia Simmons, American Cookery (Hartford: Hudson and Goodwin, 1796).

McCormack Corporation, “Pumpkin Pie Spice: An Iconic McCormick Product (And How We’re Working to Meet the Holiday Demand)”, November 19, 2020, https://www.mccormickcorporation.com/en/news-center/blog/articles/2020/11/19/17/53/pumpkin-pie-spice-an-iconic-mccormick-product

Stephen Witherden, Wikimedia Commons, 23 November 2006, https://www.flickr.com/photos/34635766@N00/304592908/