The Chemistry of the Pumpkin Spice Craze

It's either your favorite time of the year or your worst nightmare, but as we begin to prepare for the colder weather, we also prepare for the onslaught of pumpkin flavored...well...everything. From the seemingly innocent pumpkin spice latte spawned the pumpkin-spice craze that lead to pumpkin spice muffins, coffee creamer, bagels, and even dog treats. But what exactly makes up "pumpkin spice"? John Oliver quotes it being "pumpkin-flavored science goo" in his Last Week Tonight show, and that there actually is no real pumpkin in the flavoring.

While the infamous pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks keeps its recipe secret, an article by Carmen Drahl from Chemical and Engineering news investigates further.

Fig.1: What actually makes up the flavor of pumpkin spice.

The chemicals present that most likely make up pumpkin flavors are that of Zingiberene, (E)-Cinnamaldehyde, and Sabinene. Zingiberene and (E)-Cinnamaldehyde are, as their name suggests, the main chemicals responsible for ginger and cinnamon flavors (respectively). Sabinene is known by most as the nutmeg flavoring. The combination of these allows the brain to essentially connect-the-dots and give you the pumpkin flavor that you recognize. This is because, according to food science, a pumpkin flavor could consist of over 340 flavor combinations, but the brain only needs about 5-10% of the total flavor to essentially fill in the blanks.

Techniques such as gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, and Carbon NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) have been done on some pumpkin flavorings to find cinnamons, nutmegs, ginger, and allspice to determine the chemistry behind the craze.

As Drahl phrases so beautifully: "Like chemistry, pumpkin spice is everywhere."