As we reach mid-fall, the need for pumpkin spice every day in every meal grows more and more common amongst people worldwide. The craze for pumpkin kicked off about 13 years ago when Starbucks released the Pumpkin Spice Latte, the beverage that has taken over the definition of fall. Since then, the flavor has become polarizing, with some obsessing over the flavor, and others finding it completely overrated and overplayed. While everyone may know about pumpkin spice lattes, let’s take a look at some of the top 5 wildest pumpkin spice products.  

5). Pumpkin Spice Cooking Spray 

The idea of cooking spray is to make sure that food doesn’t stick to whatever it’s on. It’s a tool for cooking, and a tool that often has little to no impact on the flavor of the food. So, why does there need to be pumpkin spice cooking spray? Other than the obvious motive of money, it’s difficult to justify the making of this product. The spray may give a very slight cinnamon undertone, but, for most foods, this will be a strange buy. The only real purpose for this product would be when making pumpkin desserts or breakfast. However, it still seems like an obvious money grab targeted towards pumpkin spice crazed customers.  

4). Pumpkin Spice Pringles 

I’ll admit, the sky’s the limit for chip flavors. The Pringles brand does have a pension for picking out strange seasonal flavors, so it should come as no surprise that pumpkin spice Pringles are for sale. This certainly isn’t the strangest chip out there, that award may go to the varied flavors of chocolate, but, still, it seems odd. When most people think of chips, they think about regular, barbecue, or sour cream and onion, and with pumpkin, people tend to think more towards desserts or breakfast. Maybe it’s mental, but the combination of the cinnamon and nutmeg of pumpkin spice and the salt of a Pringle are a strange combination.  

3). Pumpkin Spice Gum 

Spearmint. Peppermint. Wintergreen.  These are the most popular flavors of gum for Americans. Notice what they all have in common? Mint. This isn’t to say that gum has to be flavored to mint to be good, but it does show the oddity of creating gum flavored to pumpkin. I can’t say I’ve tried this, but I imagine this to be a toned down cinnamon gum, an already polarizing flavor among kids. This is definitely a reach, even by pumpkin spice standards. 

2). Pumpkin Spice Halloween Costume  

Happy Halloween? This one isn’t necessarily disgusting food, but instead a unique costume that shows just how far the popularity of pumpkin spice has gone. The food costumes that are generally bought and worn for Halloween are hotdogs, bananas, and ketchup and mustard. Are we really putting pumpkin spice on that same level? Pumpkin spice isn’t even a food as much as it is a flavor! What’s next, dressing up as vanilla for Halloween? Vanilla has been a popular flavor for decades, but it doesn’t need a costume. The whole idea is weird, and the execution is worse. Look for someone in an orange dress with a pumpkin hat at your next Halloween party – you’ll know what they’re supposed be!

1). Pumpkin Spice Burgers 

The above items, I think, have some appeal. Maybe you think the costume is cute, or maybe pumpkin spice gum is your thing, but, hamburgers? A meat?  The combination is bizarre, and even the most obsessed, may never go out of their way to try a pumpkin spice hamburger. Lots of foods can be sweetened with a sauce, and they can taste good, but actually infusing a flavor into the food is an entirely different story. The only reason this “food” exists is to slap the profitable pumpkin spice label onto one more food. Pumpkin spice burgers are one step further in strangeness compared to other pumpkin spice foods, and show how this obsession has taken over fall.