I Want M(Oreo): It’s the Great Pumpkin (Oreo), Charlie Brown!
You’ve seen the memes, you’ve heard the whispers in the corners of every cafe, you know that it haunts your every waking moment. Yes, it’s pumpkin spice season. And yes, you love it. Because…you’re basic.
It’s me. I’m the pumpkin spice lover. The baker of pumpkin scones even on the hottest days of summer. The person who has never met a pumpkin pie they wouldn’t try. The blend of spices that accompany pumpkin can include a surprisingly large variety, though cinnamon seems to be the constant, from ginger to cloves to nutmeg to allspice and even cardamom. Yet, despite this plethora of gourmet scents and flavors, pumpkin spice has gained a reputation as being an easy or overly ubiquitous flavor. So, of course, Oreo needed to step in and drop a Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice. Technically, this is the second time this flavor has been a Limited Edition, so perhaps that should be Seasonal Edition, instead, but who am I to call out the Nabisco wordsmiths?
But how did this seasonal, er, limited, flavor begin? To many, it started on a crisp day in 2003 when Starbucks released the Pumpkin Spice Latte for the first time–this latte had a slightly buttery orange depth of color, and smelled heavily of cinnamon and autumn and goodness. In that exact order. The deeply sweet drink quickly became a customer favorite and was brought back the following year, and every year since, creating a steady line of people waiting for that first sip to be released every fall. Interesting fact: pumpkin wasn’t actually used in the drink until 2015, adding an additional depth to the flavor palette. However, the history of pumpkin spice blend is, of course, quite a bit longer.
Pumpkin pie recipes have been around since at least the 1600’s and the spice blends, even then, remains fairly unchanged — cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, etc. In 1934, the world’s biggest spice brand, McCormick, released its own pumpkin pie spice blend. This was created after canned pumpkin had been introduced in 1929, becoming a home staple for creating pumpkin pies without the hassle of cleaning and preparing the gourd. Suddenly pumpkin pie could be easily made and homes in fall were soon awash in the heavenly scent of baking cinnamon.
But I digress, as I am prone to do, because what I am really meaning to talk about here isn’t the history of pumpkin spice, or even its unfair maligning as the basic bitch drink of choice, but rather I am here to taste-test Oreo’s latest batch of Pumpkin Spice goodness. The flavor was released a little before autumn, on August 15th, and the packaging features a pleasantly decorated slice of pumpkin pie. Consider me already intrigued.
Opening the package, the golden Oreo wafer cookie is filled with a burnt orange colored creme that looks surprisingly like canned pumpkin. So, already points for accuracy if nothing else. I took a deep whiff of the contents and did a double take. My partner went, “that bad?” with wide eyes. But it wasn’t bad, it was….baffling. The cookies smelled like pumpkin. I thought perhaps the color had affected my senses and tricked me, but the smell was confirmed by my partner as being “very pumpkin-y.” So I was intrigued and now I was ravenous for a taste. And…
…They were good! The golden Oreo pairs perfectly with what tastes primarily like a cinnamon creme. There isn’t much pumpkin flavor, but in these hallowed halls (my apartment) cinnamon is a superstar who deserves its own show anyway. If you’re craving a pumpkin spice latte taste, exactly, this ain’t it. But if you enjoy an Oreo to pair with your unflavored latte for a dipping extravaganza? Look no further, we have a winner!
