KANSAS CITY — Once again, fall-inspired pumpkin spice flavors are making their way back to store shelves in a cinnamon-and-nutmeg-flavored flood.
While pumpkin spice remains a popular flavor, the question on market researchers’ minds this year is: Are consumers past the pumpkin spice product craze? Chicago-based consumer intelligence company NielsenIQ found unit sales for all pumpkin-flavored items across the store dropped by 1.5% for the 52-week period ended July 29. Despite the dip in unit sales, the total dollar sales for the 52-week period ended July 29 still reached $802.5 million.
Pumpkin spice can be found in virtually every aisle of the grocery store. This year, the fall flavor is being used in everything from cream cheese to protein shakes to mochi and ice cream pops. Hefty even debuted limited-edition cinnamon pumpkin spice trash bags.
GoodPop, a frozen better-for-you dessert brand, launched a pumpkin spice latte pop. The dairy-free frozen treats are formulated from oat milk, pumpkin and cold-brew coffee, with no refined sugars or sugar alcohol sweeteners, and contain 60 calories per pop.
“Over the last few years when PSL season comes around, our fans reach out asking us for a pumpkin spice latte pop, and so this one was really made for our fans,” said Daniel Goetz, founder and chief executive officer of GoodPop. “We wanted to introduce a treat with fall flavors, even while the temps are still high. Our pumpkin spice latte pops are just that — a fun, delicious treat made with high-quality ingredients to give you that fall feeling, even on an end-of-summer day.”
To accompany pumpkin spice, companies also are starting to release products flavored with apple pie seasoning. Companies like the D.F. Stauffer Biscuit Co., a subsidiary of Meiji America Inc., debuted a SNAPS apple cinnamon variety, which features ingredients such as apple powder, cinnamon and molasses. Elmhurst 1925 launched a non-dairy apple pie spice beverage, formulated with six ingredients, including an oat-cashew base and the company’s lavender vanilla botanical blend, to deliver baked apple and buttery piecrust flavor notes. My/Mochi and General Mills’ Lärabar brand also launched their own respective apple pie products.
