The announcement of Starbucks’ fall menu, helmed by its famous pumpkin spice latte, has become the heralding event signifying the “official” start of autumn. Take that, changing of the leaves—your nature-given job has been stolen by a huge corporation with questionable morals.
This year’s menu has its iconic, irreplaceable PSL, alongside Pecan flavors introduced in 2024. The coffee giant’s newest innovation is Chaider, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: its famous chai concentrate mixed with apple flavors. In terms of food, the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin and an upgraded Hedgehog Cake Pop are both coming back. Capitalizing on the trendiness of high-protein food, the new Chicken Bacon Protein Pocket packs 20 grams.
A particularly odd and intriguing choice is… banana. I am a huge fan myself, but then again I was the weird kid who was actually happy to find the banana Laffy Taffy in my trick-or-treat basket. Believe me, people get really weird and divided about banana flavoring. The Iced Banana Bread Latte and Iced Banana Bread Chai combine fall flavors with banana. Someone be brave enough to spend $7 on this and tell me how it goes.
Of course, we can’t forget everybody’s favorite: consumerism. The fall drinks will blow into stores with a PSL-colored merch collection on the side. From an Owala water bottle to insulated cups and fall-inspired mugs, the collection has exactly what any PSL lover could want. Their press release also mentions a hat, which is not shown in their promotional photos.
The PSL, along with a sprinkle of inflation and high demand, has made Starbucks into the giant it is today. In 2003, Starbucks sold the PSL for the first time in 100 stores across Vancouver and Washington. That year, the company’s net revenue was $4.1 billion. In 2024, it was $36.2 billion.
All of the aforementioned drinks and items will be available on August 25, as Starbucks has declared this the beginning of autumn.