It’s Pumpkin Spice Season!

Gabrielle Birchak/ November 4, 2024/ Modern History, Uncategorized

It’s Octo­ber world­wide, and I have a treat for you! Pun intend­ed. In the Unit­ed States, it isn’t only Hal­loween sea­son. It’s also pump­kin spice sea­son. And though I am not a huge pump­kin spice fan, I enjoy the occa­sion­al pump­kin spice liqueur and a slice of pump­kin pie. It’s fun­ny that this phe­nom­e­non is spe­cif­ic to the Unit­ed States. My Ital­ian tutor in Italy is com­plete­ly shocked at our bizarre obses­sion with pump­kin spice. And she is not wrong. In these parts, the list is long!

We have Star­bucks pump­kin spice cold brew con­cen­trate, pump­kin spice Chee­rios, pump­kin spice gra­ham crack­ers, pump­kin spice rolls, pump­kin spice cream cheese, pump­kin spice mochi, pump­kin spice caramels, pump­kin spice choco­late milk, pump­kin spice marsh­mal­lows, pump­kin spice cook­ie mix, pump­kin spice Ore­os, pump­kin spice spam, pump­kin spice cream­er, pump­kin spice dog sham­poo, pump­kin spice toi­let paper, pump­kin spice deodor­ant, pump­kin spice kale chips, pump­kin spice mar­gar­i­tas, pump­kin spice fla­vored beef jerky, pump­kin spice lat­te fla­vored beef jerky, and LaCroix pump­kin spice sparkling water. And I am not mak­ing up any of this. That’s how much pump­kin spice we have. Even at home goods, we have pump­kin spice-scent­ed pump­kin pil­lows. It’s ludicrous.

Before I get into the chem­istry and math of pump­kin spice, I will start with the his­to­ry of pump­kin spice. Because it may seem like a mod­ern inven­tion, but the roots of this fla­vor go back centuries.

Pump­kins are native to North Amer­i­ca. Long before the colonists arrived, the Indige­nous peo­ple of our region were using pump­kins in their cook­ing. They roast­ed, baked, and made soups, stews, bread, and desserts. The tra­di­tion of roast­ing the seeds was also com­mon. Our Indige­nous tribes leave noth­ing to waste. Each of the tribes has their own way of cook­ing pump­kin-based meals. The north­east­ern Iro­quois tribe cul­ti­vates pump­kins and com­bines them with corn and beans in a trio known as the “Three Sis­ters.” The Algo­nquin tribe roast their pump­kins over an open fire or bake them in clay pits. The Great Plains Sioux tribe roast or steam their pump­kins. They made a dish called “pump­kin mush,” where the pump­kin is boiled and mashed, some­times sweet­ened with wild hon­ey, or mixed with oth­er grains. The Great Plains Cheyenne tribe makes pump­kin stew and incor­po­rates meat, such as buf­fa­lo or deer, cre­at­ing a fill­ing and pro­tein-rich dish. The south­west­ern tribe, the Hopi, pre­pared their pump­kins by steam­ing them in under­ground ovens called “uhi.” They com­bine their pump­kins and cer­e­mo­ni­al dish­es with oth­er crops like corn­meal to make sweet breads or cakes. The Cal­i­for­nia tribes, includ­ing Pomo, incor­po­rate their pump­kin dish­es with local crops like berries and hon­ey to sweet­en their bread and cakes.

But it wasn’t until Euro­pean set­tlers arrived that pump­kins start­ed to take on the fla­vor pro­file that we know today, thanks to one key ele­ment: the spice trade. Spices like cin­na­mon, nut­meg, and cloves start­ed arriv­ing from Asia. Cin­na­mon and nut­meg trav­eled across the Silk Road from places like Sri Lan­ka and Indone­sia. These spices were so valu­able that they were con­sid­ered lux­u­ry goods and were some­times used as currency.

So, pump­kin spice is a fusion of fla­vors and ideas from var­i­ous parts of the world—spices from the East and pump­kins from North Amer­i­ca. Fast for­ward to the colo­nial era, and sud­den­ly, you’ve got pump­kins meet­ing these spices in Amer­i­can kitchens. By the nine­teenth cen­tu­ry, pump­kin pie spiced with cin­na­mon and cloves became a Thanks­giv­ing sta­ple. And from there, it was only a mat­ter of time before some­one thought, ‘Why not add it to coffee?

So, what makes pump­kin spice so irre­sistible? Well, it’s not just about taste. It’s also about chemistry.

Each of the spices in a pump­kin spice blend—cinnamon, nut­meg, cloves, and ginger—contains volatile organ­ic com­pounds or VOCs. When you heat or grind spices, these mol­e­cules evap­o­rate into the air, giv­ing them their strong aro­ma. Let’s break it down:

• Cin­na­mon con­tains cin­namalde­hyde, the com­pound respon­si­ble for its warm, sweet flavor.
• Nut­meg has a chem­i­cal called myris­ticin, which adds a slight­ly nut­ty, earthy taste.
• Cloves are packed with eugenol, which gives them that spicy, almost med­i­c­i­nal bite.
• Gin­ger has gin­gerol, which gives it both spici­ness and a bit of sweetness.

These com­pounds don’t just cre­ate flavor—they inter­act with our brain’s olfac­to­ry sys­tem, trig­ger­ing emo­tion­al respons­es. The olfac­to­ry sys­tem con­sists of spe­cial­ized sen­so­ry cells locat­ed in the olfac­to­ry epithe­li­um in the nasal cav­i­ty. These recep­tors are sen­si­tive to spe­cif­ic chem­i­cal com­pounds. So, when these VOCs enter the nasal cav­i­ty, they bind to these olfac­to­ry recep­tors, acti­vat­ing them. Once acti­vat­ed, the olfac­to­ry recep­tors send sig­nals through the olfac­to­ry bulb, which process­es the infor­ma­tion and relays it to oth­er brain regions. The sig­nals trav­el to areas of the brain involved in emo­tion and mem­o­ry, such as the amyg­dala and hip­pocam­pus. That’s why the smell of pump­kin spice often reminds peo­ple of cozy fall mem­o­ries or hol­i­day baking.

And here’s where chem­istry real­ly comes into play. These com­pounds are all syn­er­gis­tic, mean­ing that when they’re com­bined, they enhance each other’s effects. That’s why pump­kin spice doesn’t just taste like cin­na­mon or nut­meg. It’s the blend that cre­ates the sig­na­ture flavor.

But here’s the cool thing: these spices bring valu­able nutri­tion to our diet and well-being. For exam­ple, cin­na­mon con­tains sev­er­al oth­er aro­mat­ic com­pounds, includ­ing eugenol, coumarin, and var­i­ous essen­tial oils, which also con­tribute to its scent. The scent of cin­na­mon can lead to feel­ings of warmth, com­fort, and nos­tal­gia, which can enhance mood and reduce stress. Also, some stud­ies sug­gest that the aro­ma of cin­na­mon may improve cog­ni­tive func­tion and mem­o­ry. This could be due to its stim­u­lat­ing effects on the brain, poten­tial­ly improv­ing focus and con­cen­tra­tion. Cin­na­mon has antiox­i­dant prop­er­ties, which can sup­port over­all brain health. Antiox­i­dants help pro­tect brain cells from oxida­tive stress, which is linked to neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive diseases.

Nut­meg is an inter­est­ing beast. Exces­sive amounts of it can lead to adverse effects due to its psy­choac­tive prop­er­ties. So, you don’t need much of it. Nut­meg con­tains sev­er­al volatile com­pounds, with myris­ticin being the most notable. Oth­er com­pounds include eugenol and saf­role, which con­tribute to nutmeg’s dis­tinct aro­ma. It’s like cin­na­mon, and it can enhance your mood and reduce anx­i­ety. Nut­meg has some great nutri­tion­al val­ue. It has vit­a­min B6, essen­tial for our metab­o­lism and brain health. It also has vit­a­min C, which sup­ports our immune sys­tem and skin health. It has man­ganese, which is valu­able for bone for­ma­tion and metab­o­lism. It has cop­per, which is essen­tial for iron absorp­tion and red blood cell for­ma­tion. It also has mag­ne­sium, which pro­vides over 300 bio­chem­i­cal reac­tions in the body, includ­ing mus­cle and nerve func­tion. Nut­meg has plen­ty of antiox­i­dant and anti-inflam­ma­to­ry properties.

Cloves pro­vide vit­a­mins, min­er­als, antiox­i­dants, and anti-inflam­ma­to­ry prop­er­ties, which are great for peo­ple who strug­gle with arthri­tis. Cloves have vit­a­min C, antiox­i­dants, and vit­a­min K, which are vital for blood clot­ting and bone health. Like nut­meg, it holds man­ganese, cal­ci­um, and mag­ne­sium min­er­als. As I not­ed before, they are rich in eugenol, which com­bats oxida­tive stress and might reduce the risk of chron­ic dis­eases. The cool thing about cloves is that they have been shown to pos­sess antimi­cro­bial prop­er­ties, which can poten­tial­ly aid in oral health and fight bac­te­ria in the mouth. And, like any oth­er spice, it’s impor­tant to con­sume cloves in mod­er­a­tion. Too much of this spice can lead to gas­troin­testi­nal issues, liv­er dam­age, increased bleed­ing risk, aller­gic reac­tions, hor­mon­al imbal­ances, neu­ro­log­i­cal effects, and oral irri­ta­tion. Good times.

Final­ly, gin­ger has vit­a­min B6 and vit­a­min C. B6 is suit­able for your metab­o­lism and brain health, and vit­a­min C, as Linus Paul­ing showed us, is an antiox­i­dant that sup­ports our immune sys­tem. Gin­ger also has potas­si­um, which is excel­lent for heart health, mus­cle func­tion, and main­tain­ing prop­er flu­id bal­ance. And it also has mag­ne­sium. What I like about gin­ger is its anti-inflam­ma­to­ry effects, which are great for peo­ple who strug­gle with arthri­tis. I dis­cov­ered this next tip decades ago while on a trip to Hawaii with my hus­band, who got sea­sick while we were on a boat to go snor­kel­ing. They gave him a bag of gin­ger to munch on. Gin­ger is the per­fect go-to for motion sick­ness, like trav­el­ing long dis­tances on a boat, bus, or car.

Now, I’m going to get into the nerd behind the per­fect pump­kin spice lat­te. Unbe­liev­ably, there is more math and sci­ence in your pump­kin spice lat­te than you might think. Today’s baris­tas are our mod­ern-day chemists. They use pre­cise mea­sure­ments and tools—thermometers, scales, angles, analy­sis, and knowl­edge that many of us are unaware of!

If there’s one thing that is essen­tial to a good pump­kin spice lat­te, it is the per­fect espres­so. I pre­fer two espres­so shots in my pump­kin spice lat­te because I like to taste the cof­fee. So, though it is sub­jec­tive, the goal is to get a cof­fee bean that pro­vides a lev­el of rich­ness and fla­vor for your lat­te. The lighter roast­ed cof­fee beans don’t taste as good as an espres­so. They are sour-tast­ing and acidic. But some peo­ple like light-roast­ed espresso.

As an Ital­ian girl in spir­it, I do love my Ital­ian cof­fee. And from my expe­ri­ence, their Ital­ian espres­sos come from either a medi­um dark roast or a dark roast. Some medi­um-roast cof­fee beans can pro­vide caramel or choco­late fla­vors. The medi­um dark roast gives it a rich, com­plete, and dense taste.

Then, there is the dark roast cof­fee bean. The fla­vors are smok­i­er, with a hint of burnt fla­vor. If it tastes too burnt, then it’s prob­a­bly Star­bucks. Sor­ry, Star­bucks lovers. I’m not a huge fan. But if you do like a dark roast­ed blend, use a French press. Those make the best espres­sos. If you haven’t noticed, I love cof­fee and know much about it.

Now, on to the pump­kin spice lat­te! Let’s talk ratios. The per­fect bal­ance of cin­na­mon, nut­meg, cloves, and gin­ger is key to a great lat­te. Too much cin­na­mon is over­pow­er­ing, but too lit­tle los­es that cozy warmth. It’s all about find­ing the right pro­por­tions, like in alge­bra, where bal­anc­ing equa­tions is essen­tial. In fact, some baris­tas use a ratio of four parts cin­na­mon, two parts nut­meg, one part cloves, and one part gin­ger to achieve that icon­ic pump­kin spice taste.

For the pump­kin taste, you can either make your own pump­kin puree or buy it in a can. I per­son­al­ly like my pump­kin spice lat­te with pump­kin puree because it gives it that rich, smooth, pumpkin‑y fla­vor. Some peo­ple like liq­uidy pump­kin spice lat­te, but I like mine with a thick­er tex­ture. So, you can reduce the pump­kin puree by sim­ply putting it in a saucepan on medi­um to low heat and stir­ring it until it’s thick­er. It’s all about per­son­al pref­er­ence. If you’re in a rush, pump­kin syrup works too! Or even pump­kin but­ter. I’ve nev­er had a pump­kin spice lat­te with pump­kin but­ter, but if you have, please reach out to me on the socials or leave a com­ment on my blog at mathsciencehistory.com, and let me know how it tastes!

Now, when you steam milk for a lat­te, you’re doing more than just mak­ing it hot. You’re chang­ing its struc­ture at the mol­e­c­u­lar lev­el. Milk con­tains pro­teins that trap air when you steam it, form­ing foam. The heat also breaks down lac­tose, the sug­ar in milk, into sim­pler sug­ars, which makes the milk taste sweeter.

Mak­ing the foam involves under­stand­ing the dis­tance of the steam wand to the sur­face of the milk. When you hold the pitch­er spout clos­er to the sur­face, it allows for more air to be incor­po­rat­ed, which results in a froth­ier foam. But as the milk begins to heat and the foam devel­ops, mov­ing the spout deep­er into the milk can make a creami­er, denser tex­ture. This allows the milk to heat with­out adding too much air.

And there tru­ly is some geom­e­try that goes into mak­ing the per­fect pump­kin spice lat­te. Let’s talk about the angle of the pitch­er. Tilt­ing the pitch­er at a spe­cif­ic angle helps cre­ate a whirlpool effect on the milk. This motion helps to incor­po­rate air into the milk, which is essen­tial for cre­at­ing micro­foam. The opti­mal angle of the tilt is between thir­ty and forty-five degrees. This is effec­tive for incor­po­rat­ing air while heat­ing the milk. The angle can be adjust­ed based on the desired tex­ture of the foam; a steep­er angle can cre­ate denser foam, while a shal­low­er angle might pro­duce lighter foam.

Pres­sure, speed, and con­trol of the pour­ing tech­nique can influ­ence the foam’s con­sis­ten­cy. Pour­ing too quick­ly can lead to large bub­bles. In con­trast, a slow­er, con­trolled pour helps cre­ate a vel­vety micro­foam that blends well with the espres­so. Using steady pres­sure when steam­ing or pour­ing helps main­tain con­trol over the flow, con­tribut­ing to the over­all tex­ture of the latte.

Final­ly, the tem­per­a­ture of the milk is cru­cial. The tem­per­a­ture also affects the foam. If it’s too hot, the pro­teins break down too much, and the foam col­laps­es. If it’s too cold, you don’t get enough foam. Milk should be steamed to a tem­per­a­ture of around 150–155°F (65–68°C) for opti­mal tex­ture and sweet­ness with­out scalding.

Also, your choice (if you have a choice) of cups can affect your pump­kin spice lat­te. The shape of the cup and the way the foam spreads depend on geo­met­ric prin­ci­ples of sur­face area and sym­me­try. But the lat­te art! That’s my favorite! Those intri­cate leaf or heart shapes are per­fect exam­ples of sym­me­try, anoth­er impor­tant con­cept in math. In fact, cre­at­ing those designs requires an under­stand­ing of flu­id dynam­ics and sym­me­try to ensure the milk and espres­so blend beautifully.

So, I hope that this enlight­ened you about the sci­ence behind the per­fect pump­kin spice lat­te. But as a side note, it’s impor­tant to remem­ber that some pump­kin spice ingre­di­ents are tox­ic to your pets. Nut­meg poi­son­ing can include hal­lu­ci­na­tions, increased heart rate, vom­it­ing, or even seizures in your pets. Cin­na­mon can poten­tial­ly low­er their blood sug­ar lev­els, and cloves can lead to liv­er dam­age and gas­troin­testi­nal irritation.

Also, con­sid­er that pump­kin spice-scent­ed items, like can­dles and pil­lows, can pose risks to your pets. Espe­cial­ly if they have essen­tial oils. Like scent­ed can­dles. Many of those can­dles have syn­thet­ic fra­grances, dyes, and oth­er chem­i­cals that can harm your pets if ingest­ed or inhaled. Also, burn­ing can­dles pro­duces smoke, which can upset a pet’s res­pi­ra­to­ry sys­tem. And I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want to do is lay my head on a scent­ed pil­low and get it all over my face and hair.

So, there you have it, the math and sci­ence behind the per­fect pump­kin spice latte!