It wouldn't really be Autumn without a pumpkin spice latte, wouldn't it? The blend of pumpkin pie spice—cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves—mixed with warm, artisanal coffee on a crisp October morning really captures that fall feeling. And since Starbucks began selling the drink in the early 2000s, it's how millions christen the season.
But do all of these coffee achievers have Tori Amos to thank? A new article proposes the theory that the '90s alternative rock icon might have been the first to come up with the drink.
Photo by Sergione Infuso - Corbis on Getty Images
In a new entry to his Snack Stack newsletter, Doug Mack—a writer, historian and self-professed food nerd—took a deep dive in search of the origin of the pumpkin spice latte. Mack's research ultimately uncovered a 1994 interview with Amos in the Seattle alt-weekly, The Rocket.
The piece notes that Amos was "eager to find an audience for her latest experiment in beverage concoction."
"You have all your Starbucks things," she says. "Well, I have one that tastes like pumpkin pie. It's my own invention; it's my contribution to Halloween. A little witch warmer!"
Mack reached out to Amos's team but "never heard back."
Mack's thorough research into the pumpkin spice latte shows that pumpkin spice itself is older than you think, and that small, regional coffee shops were selling spice lattes a decade before Starbucks rolled out its version in 2003.
An ad with pumpkin spice drinks is seen outside Starbucks Coffee in Krakow, Poland on October 22nd, 2024Photo by NurPhoto on Getty Images
Amos, now 62, first rose to fame with the short-lived '80s pop-rock group Y Kant Tori Read before achieving massive success as a solo artist in the following decade. Amos's debut album, 1992's Little Earthquakes, became a transformative moment in alternative rock, with emotionally-charged songs like "Silent All These Years," "Winter," and "Crucify." Her second album, Under The Pink, included her two highest charting and most well-known songs: "God" and "Cornflake Girl."
Her rise to fame coincided with a period of rock history when Seattle was the center of the world. The rise of grunge and the success of Nirvana put all eyes on the Pacific Northwest, which had its own cultural flares like flannel shirts, seasonal depression, and Starbucks coffee.
Mack's poignant essay discusses how coffee culture expanded beyond Seattle in the early 1990s. The research shows that while the "coffee snob" was looking for an upscale, elite experience, small-town coffee shops were selling pumpkin-spiced coffee to appeal to a different sensibility.
"The flavors leaned toward familiar baking traditions like gingerbread, banana bread, and pumpkin pie, or classic holiday tastes like eggnog or peppermint," wrote Mack. "They tapped into an evocative sense of nostalgia and celebration."
As for Tori Amos creating the pumpkin spice latte, Mack writes: "The skeptic in me thinks this can't possibly be true, but the researcher in me actually feels fairly confident in saying this: it sure looks like Tori Amos created the first known pumpkin spice latte."
Tori may be a bit too busy to confirm/deny her hand in creating the pumpkin spice latte: she's preparing a new album. Amos will release In Times of Dragons in spring 2026, an album she described as "a metaphorical story about the fight for Democracy over tyranny.' The announcement came with some additional news: she's going on tour!
Related: Alt-Rock 'Goddess' Makes Major Career Announcement and Fans 'Cannot Wait'
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