By Cassie Patton
Many may enjoy a good slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. Especially as the aroma of pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg fills the house with these earthy spices. However, some may be surprised to know that these popular spices did not begin with pumpkins.
Long before pumpkin spice became an American phenomenon, individual spices such as clove, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg shaped the history of trade routes. Spice routes were established around 3000 BCE and spices were traded at a high price with western products such as silver and gold.
The remote islands of Indonesia, where nutmeg was grown, became the main location of what is still considered the major supplier of this spice today. Ancient Egyptians would use cinnamon in embalming rituals and some medieval Europeans strongly believed this highly valuable spice could cure the plague. Thousands of years before ginger would become a staple in traditional pumpkin pie, it would be used, and is still used, in Chinese medicine for digestive purposes. Clove was used by ancient Romans to help freshen breath and to tame digestive issues as well.
It wasn’t until the European settlers had begun to put down roots in America that the spice blend began to slowly emerge. The merging of “Old World Spices” with “New World” ingredients created a new industry in culinary history. One significant event that contributed to the pumpkin spice craze occurred in 1796, when Amelia Simmons published American Cookery. This cookbook combined imported spices with Native Americans’ pumpkins and marked the growing independence from the cooking styles of European countries.
Fast forward to 1934, when McCormick and Company would come out with the famous, and still widely used, pre-made pumpkin pie spice blend. The spice blend contains cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. This began the rise of convenience foods and redefined accessible flavors to the middle class.
Which now leads me to the pumpkin spice latte (PSL). While many may know that Starbucks is one of the most famous coffee chains for their PSL, which was launched in 2003, they were not the first corporation to invent it. In the mid-1990s, some coffee roasters, including one in Tampa Bay, Fla., began experimenting with pumpkin spice flavorings for coffee, to massive success, which led to the widespread trend of pumpkin spice-flavored products today.
Cassie Patton, born and raised in Washington state, says she has always enjoyed writing about any topic possible. When not actively writing, she can be found baking up a sweet treat or watching football.