The holiday season has officially begun (well, at least in my books)! With the changing leaves and the cozy sweater weather comes the annual return of pumpkin spice. What began innocently with our beloved pumpkin spice lattes and candles, our society’s obsession with pumpkin spice has taken some strange turns. Believe it or not, there exists pumpkin spice hummus, jello, and even deodorant. Regardless of its form, pumpkin spice’s familiar and soul-warming feelings are undeniable.
Pumpkin spice usually refers to a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and (sometimes) ginger. Funny enough, pumpkin spice blends don’t actually have ground up pumpkin as you might expect. This season, I’m getting to the bottom of a few burning questions:
Why is pumpkin spice so incredibly popular and so strongly associated with autumn? It is everywhere!
Why does it make us feel warm and cozy inside?
Where do cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves come from?
The Psychology of Pumpkin Spice
As NBC news aptly described it, pumpkin spice hits an “olfactory jackpot.” Surprisingly, most of what we “taste” actually comes from our sense of smell. Also, our brain can more strongly associate memories and emotions to smell than to any other sense. This is because our olfactory bulb, the smell processing part of our brain, is directly connected to the amygdala and hippocampus, regions that control emotions and memory. Other senses like touch, taste, or sight must pass through another part of the brain, the thalamus, before being processed. Therefore our brain can easily and strongly associate the very fragrant pumpkin spice blend to happy memories of holiday festivities. It helps that all our pumpkin spice foods are often ladened with sugar too, which the brain loves.
The Physiology of Pumpkin Spice
You might have heard nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger referred to as “warm spices.” These spices can stimulate blood circulation, flushing your skin and pumping blood to revitalize your fingers and toes. You're not actually increasing your body temperature, but thermoreceptors in your skin are sensitive to the increase in blood flow. Increased blood flow is caused by the different chemicals that make up the spices: for example, tannins (cinnamon), gingerol (ginger), eugenol (cloves). I could not dig up any scientific studies or explanations for these, but from anecdotal evidence, pumpkin spice definitely makes me feel warm and cozy during the brisk sweater weather.
The Production of Pumpkin Spice
Cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves are all harvested from different parts of trees. Cinnamon is the dried inner bark of a cinnamon tree. Nutmeg is the dried seeds of a nutmeg tree. Cloves are the immature flower buds of a clove tree. Who knew other parts of trees besides its fruits could be so flavorful? On the other hand, ginger does not grow on trees. It grows underground like a little knobby potato and is sometimes incorporated in the pumpkin spice blend.
I have pumpkin spice deodorant. I saw it at CVS and had to have it. Smells more of nutmeg tbh.