Is Pumpkin Spice Cooling Off?
By Aimee Harvey on Sep. 11, 2017CHICAGO -- Many consumers were still in the throes of summer vacation when pumpkin-spice season officially began on Sept. 1—the date Starbucks rolled out its signature Pumpkin Spice Latte to cheers from fans who eagerly anticipate its return each fall. But some analysts are predicting that the cheers may not be quite as loud this year. Data analytics company 1010data revealed that while the number of pumpkin-spice products available online has surged nearly 50%, sales themselves are up just 21%.
While consumers’ appetite for pumpkin spice may be waning, restaurants are still planning to feed the frenzy this fall. But to hedge their bets, some operators are also looking into other trending seasonal flavors—especially maple. According to Technomic’s MenuMonitor powered by Ignite, maple has increased nearly 86% as a nonalcoholic beverage flavor year over year and almost 14% in appetizer mentions.
Courtesy of our colleagues at Restaurant Business, here’s a look at how pumpkin and maple are duking it out on menus this season—with some ideas for retailers to snag for beverages, multiple dayparts, baked goods and desserts ...
1. Coffee + bagel
Au Bon Pain’s current marketing promos encourage customers to “Spread the Flavor of Fall” by opting for a new bagel spread that blends maple and pumpkin into the chain’s proprietary maple-pumpkin butter. Also on the roster is a pumpkin pie latte, billed as “a pumpkin pick me up.”
2. A maple menu
Dunkin’ Donuts expanded its usual roster of fall pumpkin-spiced items with the launch of a maple-flavored menu. Maple-pecan coffees and lattes lead the lineup, with a Maple Sugar Bacon Breakfast Sandwich on the food side. The sandwich boasts a double portion of caramelized maple sugar cherrywood smoked bacon, layered with egg and cheese on a croissant. But Dunkin’s hasn’t abandoned pumpkin. Also ready for fall is a pumpkin doughnut and muffin, pumpkin coffees and a new pumpkin cream cheese spread.
3. From breakfast to dinner
Cracker Barrel is infusing its menu with maple and pumpkin flavors that span the dayparts. The full-service chain is offering pumpkin spice pancakes to jumpstart the morning. Two other new breakfast additions include a maple pepper bacon breakfast sandwich with two fried eggs, ham, tomato, lettuce and Colby cheese on sourdough bread and a pumpkin-spice muffin. Dinner guests have the choice of Maple Pecan Fried Chicken and a pumpkin custard topped with gingersnap crumble for dessert.
4. Seasonal ice cream
Belgian Waffle is the featured seasonal flavor at Baskin Robbins, created with a base of maple-praline flavored ice cream swirled with a ribbon of caramel and dotted with waffle pieces and praline pecans. The ice cream chain also is returning some old favorites, including Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream and Pumpkin Cheesecake Milkshake.
5. Doubling down on pumpkin
In contrast to Dunkin's maple menu, Tim Horton’s is betting on all pumpkin, all the time with four fall LTOs. The food menu includes Pumpkin Spice Timbits (bite-sized doughnut holes), a pumpkin spice glazed doughnut and a pumpkin spice muffin filled with cinnamon roll frosting. To wash it all down is the Pumpkin Spice Iced Capp, an iced cappuccino topped with whipped cream and a graham crumble.