Starbucks officially rolled out its Fall Menu at the opening of business today and one day in, some are suggesting the fabled Pumpkin Spice Latte on the slippery slope into obscurity. An annual study released by the team at The Daring Kitchen says social media chatter about PSLs is down significantly. At the end of the business day today, just the above search queries rendered just 10,000 total tweets while last year’s study included a whopping 100,000 tweets. Could Pumpkin Spice SPAM be to blame?
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The basis of the study uses Twitter trend tracking software to determine which geotagged tweets used ‘pumpkin spice latte,’ #psl, or #pumpkinspicelatte. Since all tweets used in the study had be geotagged, the report was able to pull up a map of which states were raving up the early debut of Pumpkin Spice Lattes. This year saw the Northwoods head to the top as Minnesota took home the top spot on the table of PSL fiends. The Land of 10,000 Lakes was followed by Colorado, Kansas, Connecticut, and Ohio to round out the top five.
A few of the states that apparently couldn’t care less about Starbucks fall staple include both Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, and a few New England locations like Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. You can see the study’s full response map below.
“Last year there was WAY more activity,” study spokesperson Ryan Taylor tells ComicBook.com. “It is hard to make direct conclusions from social media data, but it is possible that after years and years of Pumpkin Spice “This” and Pumpkin Spice “That”, even Pumpkin Spice SPAM, that people are now simply like ‘Oh cool, that good drink is back’ and making nothing more about it.”
Taylor also reminded us Starbucks felt the need to changes things up a bit by also releasing a Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew this fall, something that could be a sign of the chain recognizing a dip in popularity.
Have you gotten your first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season yet? If you don’t care for PSLs, what’s your go-to Starbucks order? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or by tweeting me at @AdamBarnhardt!
