It is not even officially fall, but for coffee shops pumpkin spice latte season is already in full swing. Before it's even cool enough in the air to want a hot coffee, Starbucks rolls out their signature fall drink.
The coffee giant first unrolled the Pumpkin Spice Latte, #PSL for short on twitter, in 2003. Pretty soon Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's had their own versions of the drink.
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Each latte has one thing in common: none of contain actual pumpkin.
McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts list the ingredients for their pumpkin spice lattes on their websites, listing ingredients like fructose, high fructose corn syrup, potassium sorbate, and disodium phosphate.
Starbucks currently does not list the ingredients of any of their signature drinks online but a company representative said that customers can ask a barista for ingredient information in a store.
Eventually she sent this list of ingredients for the pumpkin spice latte: milk, espresso (water, brewed espresso coffee), pumpkin spice flavored sauce (sugar, condensed nonfat milk, sweetened condensed nonfat milk, annatto, natural and artificial flavors, caramel color, salt, potassium sorbate [preservative]), whip cream (cream, natural flavor), pumpkin spice topping (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove, sulfites).
The representative said Starbucks is working to list the ingredients for all of its signature drinks online in the near future.