What Should Be the New Flavor of Fall? Tell Us!

Pumpkin spice season is upon us once again. The PSL is back at Starbucks and your local grocery store’s endcaps are positively brimming with products tinged with the familiar flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice. The annual launching of the pumpkin spice products has become an American tradition—as haywire weather patterns neutralize nature’s signals that the seasons are changing, we look to the grocery store for guidance. If you can’t see the leaves change color in your neck of the woods, you can at least take in the smell of warm spices as you heat a Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tart in the toaster or add a glug of pumpkin spice creamer to your morning coffee.

But here’s the thing: Pumpkin spice is getting a little bit played out. Like, yeah, we all need something to look forward to when summer is effectively over and Halloween doesn’t roll around for a couple of months—maybe what we need is a new fall flavor profile to spice things up. So we ask you, Sporked readers: What should be the new flavor of fall? Is it something simple like apple cider or something more niche like matcha? You tell us and we’ll announce our favorite suggestions on Monday, September 8.

By submitting your email address to participate in our 2025 Flavor of Fall survey, you are signing up to receive Sporked‘s email newsletter. Upon receiving your first email, you can unsubscribe by clicking “Unsubscribe” at the bottom.

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About the Author

Howdy! I’m Gwynedd, Sporked’s managing editor. I live in Los Angeles and have access to the best tacos the U.S. has to offer—but I’m a sucker for a crunchy Old El Paso taco night every now and then. I’ve been at Sporked since 2022 and I’m still searching frozen mozzarella sticks that can hold a candle to restaurant sticks. Why you should trust me: I’ve been a journalist for 20 years (yikes), a consumer of food for 40-plus years, and I’m truly hard pressed to think of foods I don’t like (or that I can’t tolerate at the very least). Oh and one time I cooked my way through Guy Fieri’s cookbook and wrote about the journey through Flavortown. What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s Original Savory Thins. Fat free plain yogurt (usually Fage or Nancy’s). Honeycrisp apples. Sweet cream coffee creamer for my at-home Americanos. A frozen cauliflower crust pizza and some jarred mushrooms to top it with. Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff taco shells and Gardein Ground Be’f, even though I think “be’f” is a nightmarish contraction. Favorite ranking: Stouffer’s frozen dinners. I don’t own a microwave (I get my cancers the old fashioned way!), so I love taste testing things that I don’t really buy to eat at home. Least favorite ranking: Soy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love soy sauce—but consuming that much sodium in one sitting is probably illegal in some countries. Our frozen enchilada taste test was a close second; the smell of microwaved corn tortillas still haunts me.