The rise of Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte, by the numbers

FILE -A Pumpkin Spice Latte drink rests on a table at a Starbucks in New York, Aug. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Want a little autumn in your August? You’re in luck.

The seasonal Pumpkin Spice Latte has returned to Starbucks menus in the U.S. and Canada.

The Pumpkin Spice Latte is Starbucks’ most popular seasonal beverage, with hundreds of millions sold since the espresso drink’s 2003 launch. It’s also produced a host of imitations. Dunkin’ introduced pumpkin-flavored drinks in 2007; it beat Starbucks to market this year when its fall menu debuted last week. McDonald’s introduced a pumpkin spice latte in 2013.

Here’s a look at the Pumpkin Spice Latte by the numbers:

— 100: Number of Starbucks stores that sold the Pumpkin Spice Latte during a test run in Vancouver, B.C. and Washington, D.C. in 2003. The following year it launched nationally.

— 79: Number of markets where Starbucks sold the Pumpkin Spice Latte in 2024. At the time, the company had stores in 85 markets around the world. It now operates in 88 markets.

— US$36.2 billion: Starbucks’ net revenue in its 2024 fiscal year, which ended last September. Starbucks’ net revenue was $4.1 billion in 2003, when the Pumpkin Spice Latte first went on sale.

— 33.8 per cent: Increase in mentions of pumpkin spice on U.S. menus between the fall of 2014 and the fall of 2024, according to Technomic.

— 4: Number of spices in McCormick’s Pumpkin Pie Spice. They are cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice.

— 2022: The year Merriam-Webster added “pumpkin spice” to the dictionary. Less common, it said, is the term “pumpkin pie spice.”

— 3: The Pumpkin Spice Latte was the third seasonal beverage introduced by Starbucks, after the Eggnog Latte and the Peppermint Mocha.

— Sept. 8: Date the Pumpkin Spice Latte went on sale in 2015. The on-sale date has edged earlier since then.

— 24 per cent: Amount foot traffic rose at U.S. Starbucks last year on Aug. 22, the day the Pumpkin Spice Latte went on sale, according to Placer.ai. The company compared traffic that Thursday to the previous eight Thursdays.

— 45.5 per cent: Amount foot traffic rose at Starbucks stores in North Dakota on Aug. 22, 2024, the most of any state, according to Placer.ai. Foot traffic in Mississippi rose the least, at 4.8 per cent.

— 42,000: Number of members of the Leaf Rakers Society, a private Facebook group Starbucks created in 2018 to celebrate fall all year long.

Dee-ann Durbin, The Associated Press