When asked to think about fall, the average middle schooler thinks of a few different things: leaves, the cooler weather, Halloween, and pumpkins. Specifically, pumpkin spice.

Why pumpkin spice? Whenever the date hits Oct. 1, every store you walk into floods you with an overwhelming number of pumpkin spice products.

To see how crazy this obsession is, I went to the Trader Joe’s website. I found that there are an astounding 48 products with pumpkin spice featured in them, and then later when physically walking into the store with my mom, I could barely see any products that didn’t have pumpkin in them.

In my opinion, one thing and one thing only started this craze: Starbucks. The infamous pumpkin spice latte is the most popular drink from October through December. Cliff Burrows, the President of Starbucks, said in a recent interview that more than 200 million pumpkin spice lattes were sold around the globe last year alone. Last year, the latte didn’t even have pumpkin in it.

People are also forming their own “secret society” around this drink, called the Orange Sleeve Society. Feverish fans receive an orange knit sleeve in the mail that says Team PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte) on it, and wear it around their drink instead of the normal brown paper sleeve.

I decided that, yes, maybe this is a big thing that tastes good, but does it actually? I asked around Bedford and Coleytown Middle Schools to get people’s opinions on their favorite and least favorite pumpkin spice items.

“The pumpkin spice latte is disgusting,” says Olivia Gordy, Aydan Moskowitz, and Grace Cooper 8th graders at Bedford and Coleytown.

“I love pumpkin bread,” say Caroline Vandis and Hailey Nusbaum.

“The pumpkin spice Oreos make me want to barf,” says Maisie Dembski.

This is not convincing me that this pumpkin spice obsession even makes sense. I then decided to put Google to good use. First, I looked up what even is pumpkin spice. Google states that it consists of these products: 1) ground cinnamon, 2) ground nutmeg, 3) ground ginger, 4) ground allspice. That’s it. It feels like it’s missing something. Oh right. It’s missing PUMPKIN. Why does pumpkin spice not even have pumpkin in it?

One thing that is a big problem about pumpkin spice is the fact that it has become so commercialized in the last few years. People worship this ghost product. It is very likely that these fans have never even tasted actual pumpkin before. Companies publicize the warmth and general foolishness of their products, but usually it is just a hoax.

The question is, why would someone create a fanbase around a useless product? The answer for most companies; money. People are drawn in by the idea of warmth, fall, and most of all, the trendy idea of it. Customers flock around it and fantasize over it. Then they buy the product. And it stinks. They end up disappointed with a gross tasting product and a bunch of money out the door. Yet, they keep coming back because it makes them seem cool. And that is the official downfall for all the consumers of the mystery that is pumpkin spice.

Another Google search seemed in order, so I decided to search pumpkin spice with a random letter of the alphabet and see what came up. For example; pumpkin spice “A” resulted in: pumpkin spice at Starbucks, pumpkin spice at Dunkin Doughnuts, pumpkin spice ale, and pumpkin spice almonds.

That was interesting so I did another; pumpkin spice “Y” said pumpkin spice yogurt, pumpkin spice yogurt pretzels, pumpkin spice yankee candle, pumpkin spice year round, and pumpkin spice Youtube.

I think that this is one of the most ridiculous obsessions yet. It doesn’t taste good, and it is a waste of money. Pumpkin spice fans beware.