Fall is near.  And when Starbucks unleashes its Pumpkin Spice Latte, that will raise the gates for the flood of pumpkin spice cereal, potato chips, beer, hummus, and body lotions to take over stores and wash our houses in orangish brown.  We're less than a week away.

School is back in session and football season is coming, and surely the onslaught of pumpkin spice everything is not far behind. Has there ever been a more polarizing flavor?  Maybe Brussel sprout flavor.  But love it or hate it,  the pumpkin spice takeover is about to begin.

Business Insider has been digging around, and they're saying Starbucks will start selling the Pumpkin Spice Latte next Tuesday, August 28th.  Dunkin Donuts may have gotten wind of this, and the Today show reports they'll unveil their new fall flavors on Monday the 27th to get a head start.  Regardless of when we first see that beautiful cup with "PSL" and our name on it, we can pretty much count on having it by Labor Day and every day after that until we clean them out of pumpkin spice for another year.

Fall is the time of year to see food manufacturers really go nuts and try to outdo each other, and we're just a few days away from the caramel-maple-apple-nutmeg-pumpkin spice madness.  Cereals, donuts, crackers, yogurt, and even popcorn will get the fall flavor treatment.  The pantry won't know what hit it.

I'm so ready!  We're not far away from that moment when we can finally lather up in whipped pumpkin body cream, light a pumpkin pie candle, and sip on a huge cup of pumpkin spice cream to go with a little bit of plain ole coffee.  And if you're not into that, maybe a pumpkin ale?

See you next week at the coffee shops.  It sounds like it will be a big one for pumpkin spice lovers, and for our Tinder dates that need to know what they're gettin' themselves into.  This will be fun.

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