About
Pumpkin Spice Latte is a seasonal coffee drink served at the American global coffeehouse chain Starbucks. Online, it is often mocked as a stereotypical drink consumed by “basic” white women.
Origin
Starbucks debuted the “Pumpkin Spice Latte” in October of 2004. The following month, Starbucks sales grew 11%, to which CEO Jim Donald credited the successful Pumpkin Spice Latte for the sales.[1]
“The very successful debut of Pumpkin Spice Latte, which has been enthusiastically received by our customers, is creating momentum as we head into the holiday season.”
Spread
On August 4th, 2014 the “Pumpkin Spice Latte” Twitter[5] feed was launched, which posts tweets written from the perspective of the coffee drink. Within two months, the feed gained over 93,500 followers. On September 4th, BuzzFeed published a listicle titled “25 Things All Basic White Girls Do During The Fall,” which included “Get on that Pumpkin Spice Latte grin” as #1 on the list.
On September 12th, the pop culture blog Flavorwire[4] published an article highlighting tweets joking about white women and Pumpkin Spice Lattes (shown below).
On September 22nd, BuzzFeed published a photo log of an attempt at recreating the Starbucks drink, referring to it as “the sacred elixir of basic white girls everywhere.”
Notable Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]Yahoo! Finance – Starbucks Begins Fiscal 2005 with Strong October Revenues
[2]BuzzFeed – 25 Things All Basic White Girls Do During The Fall
[3]BuzzFeed – This Is What Happens When You Try To Make A Pumpkin Spice Latte From Scratch
[4]Flavorwire – White Women Love Pumpkin Spice Lattes
[5]Twitter = @TheRealPSL