The Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte turns 20. This is how we got here.

Pumpkin spice plays a starring role in another zeitgeist-y meme when Christian Girl Autumn breaks out. It starts as a joke, when a Twitter user shares a picture of two brunettes whose loose-curled hair, massive scarves and brown ankle boots instantly mark them as the sort of apple-picking, “live-laugh-love”-ing women who almost certainly would profess themselves to be PSL devotees. The caption, “Christian Girl Autumn,” is a play on rapper Megan Thee Stallion’s references to “Hot Girl Summer,” which has come to represent a freer, come-as-you-are aesthetic. It turns out that the women in the photograph are not what social media expected (that is, conservative; possibly racist), and they get in on the joke.

Also in 2019, pumpkin spice achieves peak ubiquity when Hormel introduces a limited-edition Pumpkin Spice Spam. Pumpkin spice’s warm nutmeg and cinnamon flavor and aroma had long been used in products such as candles, soap and cookies (not to mention other coffee shops), as brands looking for new seasonal products realized the appeal. But the introduction of the improbable pressed meat laced with the scent seems to signal that it has jumped the shark. “The pumpkin spice phenomenon died Wednesday at age 16,” NBC News declares. “The cause of death was the existence of Pumpkin Spice Spam.” (Spoiler alert: This prediction would prove incorrect.)

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