Dunkin’ expanded its menu Wednesday with several fall pumpkin flavored treats. In addition to its Pumpkin Spice Signature Latte and Nutty Pumpkin Coffee, both available iced or hot, the food stop also has pumpkin cake donuts, donut holes and a pumpkin muffin – and Goldfish Dunkin’ Pumpkin Spice Grahams .
Pumpkin not your preference? Dunkin’s fall menu also includes a chorizo and egg wrap, a chicken and roasted pepper wrap, and a Kosher Maple Sugar Bacon Breakfast Sandwich, made with vegan bacon.
The purveyor of doughnuts (the company prefers to not use the word “donut”) began serving up four different kinds of pumpkin doughnuts on August 7: two new treats, the Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Swirl Doughnut and Pumpkin Spice Maple Pecan Doughnut, plus two returning ones, the original and cake pumpkin spice doughnuts.
In addition to its Pumpkin Spice Latte and Pumpkin Coffee, 7-Eleven also has pumpkin spice creamers and pumpkin syrup available to enhance your coffee drink at participating 7-Eleven, Speedway, and Stripes stores across the U.S. No pumpkin donuts, but there’s a limited-time Apple Cider Donut to pair with your pumpkin drink – and a pumpkin muffin coming to stores later this month.
For the record, Southern Tier Brewing Company of Lakewood, New York, began promoting its Pumking Imperial Pumpkin Ale and Warlock Pumpkin Stout on July 31. And a few days later unveiled a new pumpkin beer, Caramel Pumking Imperial Ale.
Call it “pumpkin creep,” wrote Dennis Lee at food and pop culture site The Takeout .
In addition to Samuel Adams Jack-O Pumpkin Ale and Dogfish Head Punkin Ale , other perennial favorites available now include Schlafly Pumpkin Ale , Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale , Shipyard Pumpkinhead and its boozier cousins Smashed Pumpkin and a bourbon barrel-aged Smashed Pumpkin .
For a few years, demand had gotten “soft, “but it’s rebounded,” said Norm Yow, owner of Norm’s Beer and Wine in Vienna , Virginia. “Fall seasons are probably the strongest segment of craft beer.”
Sales figures bear that out. Seasonal beers typically account for 9%-10% of total craft beer sales during the year, but during the fall – when pumpkin beers and Oktoberfest beers dominate – seasonals’ share rises to the 12% to 14% range, according to data from Bump Williams Consulting, a Shelton, Connecticut firm, which services the alcoholic beverage industry and uses NielsenIQ data.
Pumpkin cookie doughs from Nestlé and Pillsbury
Want to bake your own pumpkin snacks? You’ve got some options. Nestlé has Toll House Pumpkin Spice Cookie Dough, made with pumpkin spice flavors and white chocolate morsels. Other fall flavors include new Toll House Hot Cocoa & Marshmallow Morsels and the returning Toll House M&M’s Ghoul’s Mix Sugar Cookie Dough.
“Fall-flavored products continue to spark excitement, particularly among Gen Z and Millennials,” Chandra Kumar, president of Nestlé USA’s bakery sweets division, told USA TODAY.
You can quickly bake pumpkin cream cheese cookies and sugar cookies graced with pumpkin shapes with Pillsbury Ready To Bake refrigerated cookie doughs, arriving in early fall. Pillsbury’s Pumpkin Cream Cheese cookie dough has pumpkin-flavoring and cream cheese-flavored chunks. Pillsbury Pumpkin Cookie Dough comes with 20 pre-cut sugar cookies adorned with orange and green pumpkin art.
Another cookie concoction, Betty Crocker Pumpkin Spice Cookie Mix, requires just a few ingredients before baking. You can find it in Target and Walmart at the end of the month.
Not a cookie fan? Pillsbury Pumpkin Spice Grands let you bake five big pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls and you can top them with premade pumpkin spice icing.
Pumpkin muffins, Pop-Tarts, fruit bars, cereal and more
Lärabar Pumpkin Pie fruit and nut bars, available for a limited time, are made from nine ingredients including pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg allspice, ginger, apples, and nuts including almonds.
Entenmann’s Little Bites Pumpkin Muffins , in stores now and available nationwide through October, are bite-sized in 200-calorie portioned pouches. They are made without high fructose corn syrup and have 0 grams of trans fat.
Kellogg’s Limited Edition Frosted Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts are in stores, well, if someone hasn’t snatched up the available inventory.
An alternative: Nature’s Path Frosted Pumpkin Toaster Pastries , made with organic pumpkin filling – and available all-year-round. The food maker also makes Pumpkin Spice Frozen Waffles .
Those aren’t the only pumpkin breakfast options. There are Pumpkin Spice Cheerios and Kellogg’s also has Frosted Mini-Wheats Pumpkin Spice , Frosted Flakes Pumpkin Spice and Special K Pumpkin Spice cereals.
Chosen Foods Pumpkin Spice Avocado Oil Caviar
Here’s a new pumpkin spice product we didn’t know we needed: Chosen Foods’ Pumpkin Spice Avocado Oil Caviar . Its circular shape mimics caviar, but it’s made with 100% pure avocado oil and fall spices – and can be used as a topping on all kinds of foods and desserts including pancakes, yogurt and ice cream.
Some are out of their gourd over pumpkin spice
You don’t have to go to Starbucks, Dunkin’ or anywhere but your supermarket to augment your morning caffeine jolt with pumpkin or other fall flavors. One shopper posted an image of their pumpkin product harvest on Instagram. “Ready for alllll the Fall coffee.
An artist on Instagram not only enjoys the pumpkin spice arrival but creates art – of a Pumpkin Spice character, available on Etsy – for others to celebrate it, too. “Krispy Kreme fired the first shot and creamers are back in stores, Dunkin’ and Starbucks are rolling out. Can’t wait to chug gallons of pumpkin spice everything over the next few months!” they posted. “Stickers, prints and pins of this pumpkin spice dude are available in my shop!”
Another shopper posted, “I really consider Sept to be the start of #allthingspumpkin but I sure am excited to try all these,” displaying a shopping cart full of pumpkin spice cocoa, coffee, creamer and other products.
But some consumers aren’t as enamored with the seasonal “pumpkin creep.”
A video clip on X, formerly known as Twitter, questioned the need for Pumpkin Spice Cheerios in August. “August 15th come on now!! Enough,” they posted.
A poster on Instagram said about the Member’s Mark Pumpkin Spice Empanadas, empanadas, made with pumpkin and cream cheese: “August used to be in the Summer. I think we’re calling it pre-Autumn now. ….sigh…. “
Another poster on X used a Game of Thrones meme to sum up the situation: “Brace yourself. Pumpkin Spice everything is coming.”
