What Are the Spices in a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte?

Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte is one of their most popular holiday specialty drinks. It’s become so popular that it seems to be released earlier and earlier – in 2023 it was released in late August! What spices make this fall favorite so popular that it’s released in the summer?

The spices used in the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte are cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.

We’ll reveal the other ingredients in the PSL (where does the pumpkin come from?!) and explain how each of the spices used makes it taste like fall.

What’s a pumpkin spice latte?

Every year when the leaves start to change, the pumpkin spice craze hits HARD. Starbucks came out with its pumpkin spice latte (PSL) as a test in 2003 and then launched it in the United States as well as Canada the following year in 2004.

Other companies follow the pumpkin spice craze, so Starbucks isn’t the only one to come out with a PSL. The ingredients in pumpkin spice lattes will vary a bit depending on where you go to get your PSL fix – or maybe you’ll come up with your own recipe making a DIY version!

What’s in a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks? Several things in addition to the spices (which we’ll get to next):

• Steamed milk (at Starbucks you can choose from cow’s milk or plant-based milk alternatives like soy milk or almond milk)
• Pumpkin pie sauce, which is primarily made of:
  • Sugar
  • Condensed milk
  • Pumpkin puree
• Pumpkin spice topping
• Whipped cream (optional)

What spices are in the Starbucks pumpkin spice latte?

We went straight to the source and looked up the spices in the pumpkin spice topping that make Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte so addicting and popular. Without further ado, here they are!

Cinnamon

This probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise since cinnamon is the hallmark flavor of fall and all things pumpkin spice. Cinnamon tastes warm (even a bit spicy) and sweet. There are hundreds of types of cinnamon with varying levels of cinnamaldehyde, the compound that gives cinnamon its spicy but pleasant flavor.

Out of all of these types of cinnamon, there are four main types used – but we don’t know which type Starbucks uses in their pumpkin spice latte. In case you’re curious, the four main types of cinnamon used are:

• Indonesian (Korintje) cinnamon
• Vietnamese (Saigon) cinnamon
• Ceylon (Sri Lankan or “true”) cinnamon
• Chinese (Cassia) cinnamon (likely the kind used in the PSL since it’s the most commonly used type)

Ginger

Like cinnamon, ginger is slightly sweet while being spicy, peppery, and warm/hot (depending on who you ask). Also like cinnamon, you’ll find ginger in other fall favorites like gingerbread and gingerbread lattes. 

When it’s not a star ingredient in the pumpkin pie spice for the PSL, ginger can also be used homeopathically to treat nausea. Its active compound called gingerol has been studied for its potential to fight nausea, which is the feeling of having a queasy stomach. Ginger ale and ginger candies are a popular natural remedy for an upset stomach – many people swear by them!

Ginger pairs well with pumpkin and other types of winter squash, which is one reason it’s such a popular spice in pumpkin dishes like pumpkin pie and pumpkin spice lattes.

Nutmeg

This nutty, earthy spice is popular around the holidays and is a key ingredient in not only pumpkin spice lattes but also pumpkin pie, gingerbread, and eggnog. Nutmeg is a warm spice like cinnamon but is nuttier in flavor – hence the NUT in nutmeg!

Fun fact – nutmeg isn’t made from a nut but a seed. The outer layer of the seed that is nutmeg is harvested as its own spice called mace!

Mace is more expensive than nutmeg and is more intense in flavor. While nutmeg is nutty, warm, and slightly sweet, mace is described as tasting like pepper and cinnamon, so it’s spicier. (And no, the self-defense spray mace has no relation to the spice – in case you were curious like we were!)

Cloves

Cloves are closed, dried flower buds of the Syzygium aromaticum tree. When whole cloves look like little seeds, but you can also find them ground into a powder, which is the form they take in the pumpkin spice latte.

Like the other spices in the PSL, cloves have a warm flavor and are also slightly sweet. Cloves are in spice blends like pumpkin pie spice as well as Chinese Five Spice powder.

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