The Pumpkin Spice Latte, often heralded as the quintessential fall beverage, owes its creation to a dedicated Seattle Starbucks team led by Peter Dukes. Tasked with crafting a new seasonal drink that could follow the success of the peppermint mocha, the pumpkin spice blend emerged after many rounds of flavor testing. Combining the warm, comforting spices of cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove with the richness of espresso and steamed milk, the Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL) quickly became a cultural phenomenon in the United States.
Its popularity transformed it into a symbol of autumn, being well regarded as the taste of bright colored leaves, plaid scarves, and Halloween time. It’s an innovation that has left an enduring mark on coffee culture, and inspired many more Pumpkin flavored trends.
What many students at Roosevelt High School don’t know, however, is that Duke himself is a Roosevelt alum, and his son is a current Roosevelt junior. Surprisingly, Pearson Dukes ’26 says he has never bothered to taste a PSL himself. While his sister went viral on TikTok for being the “daughter of the PSL inventor,” Pearson says he doesn’t “really see all the hype around it.”
Pearson says the PSL doesn’t affect his life anymore than the annual party thrown for his dad, and as a running joke from his friends. He says the elder Dukes never takes full credit for the invention, despite getting recognized on the street as the master mind. “He always says he ‘made it with his team.’”
Nevertheless, Dukes gives a speech every year at said party. Pearson says “The story he tells is that one day during fall, the team was just eating pumpkin pie, and then somebody accidentally spilled some of their coffee into it. They were gonna throw it away, but then somebody tried it, and realized it was good.”
Starbucks and pumpkin spice fanatics have Dukes’ team’s happy little accident to thank, because since its introduction in 2003, over 350 million cups have been sold, which amounts to over one billion dollars in sales. As for the effects of the creation of the PSL on his family, Pearson laughs and says “I think it inflated my sister’s ego, because she got like 5 million followers just because of it”.
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