Enjoy your drink and stop worrying

Starbucks releases their famous Pumpkin Spice Latte early this year in celebration of its 11th annual season. To date, over 200 million Pumpkin Spice Lattes have been sold.

Photo Illustration Molly Schons/The Chart

Starbucks releases their famous Pumpkin Spice Latte early this year in celebration of it’s 11th annual season. To date, over 200 million Pumpkin Spice Lattes have been sold.

If you ever see me on campus between the hours of 7a.m. and noon, chances are there’s a cup of coffee in my hand.

Like many college students, it is my morning staple. If I go a day without it, you better hope that you don’t see me because chances are, I will be grumpy. It doesn’t matter the kind and I don’t care where it’s from, as long as it’s hot and caffeinated, I’ll drink it.

But as soon as fall comes around, I get a craving that only one thing can satisfy, and that craving is pumpkin spice. Lucky for me, pumpkin season came early this year.

Starbucks launched their famous Pumpkin Spice Latte as early as August 26 in some locations, and you better believe I was there within the week.

In an official news release from Starbucks Corporation, Cliff Burrows, group president, U.S., Americas, and Teavana stated, “Our customers tell us that their first sip of Pumpkin Spice Latte signals the onset of the fall season.”

As I took my first sip, I realized that he was right. The combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and sweet pumpkin flavors came together to create the savory taste I had been longing for. After that, I knew fall was finally here.

Then suddenly a blog post I came across on Facebook from FoodBabe, run by Vani Hari, interrupted me. The title jumped off the screen and into my face. It read: “You’ll never guess what’s in a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte (Hint: you won’t be happy).”

Upon further investigation, it turns out there is actually NO pumpkin in a Pumpkin Spice Latte. Hari went on in the post, discussing how she has discovered that there is something called Class IV Caramel Coloring in most of Starbucks syrups, sauces, and whipped cream. There is research and studies claiming that too much of the chemicals in this Class IV Caramel Coloring will give you cancer.

But Hari is making way too big of a deal out of this. You know what? Everything has chemicals, and in the right combinations, most chemicals have the potential to kill you. But am I going to stop drinking Pumpkin Spice Lattes just because they have chemicals and no real pumpkin? Absolutely not.

Yes, some of those chemicals might kill you or give you cancer, but the amount of them you have to consume in order for that to happen is astronomical. You are far more likely to die from something else than you are to die from drinking the chemicals that may be in a Pumpkin Spice Latte.

So, all of you pumpkin spice lovers out there keep sipping on those lattes and enjoy the onset of fall. Hari doesn’t know what she’s missing.