Nothing says autumn like the sight of golden leaves, oversized sweaters, and hefty orange pumpkins. We set them on our doorsteps to woo fall, carve them up for Halloween decor, toast their seeds, and puree their insides into the quintessential pie of Thanksgiving. Would a pumpkin by any other name taste as sweet? Yes, it turns out.<\/p>\n
Your can of 100 percent\u00a0pumpkin puree is lying to you. According to FDA labeling laws, food producers are not required to distinguish between varieties of squash and field pumpkins in their products. This is because members of the cucurbits\u00a0family\u2014aka\u00a0gourds, squash, pumpkin, and zucchini\u2014are very similar in taste and texture, so\u00a0differentiating between squash and pumpkin pulp is basically impossible.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Who among us hasn\u2019t\u00a0felt the pangs of betrayal when we found out that\u00a0our pumpkin-spice lattes were actually pumpkinless? While the deceptive flavor of pumpkin spice is uncanny\u2014it\u2019s an almighty blend of ground ginger, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg\u2014the taste and appearance of squash proves to be the best doppelg\u00e4nger. It mimics pumpkin so closely that you\u00a0can\u2019t tell the difference when looking right at it in the can. Though some pumpkin products contain a mixture of the two gourds blended together, others are pure squash.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
So, why not\u00a0just call it like it is? For starters, there are countless types of squash that vary dramatically in size, shape, and color\u2014making it difficult to choose one to represent them all\u2014while pumpkins are more easily standardized. Then there\u2019s the history and folklore behind pumpkins that squash\u00a0cannot compete with. Pumpkins are symbols of harvest, Halloween, and pure magic. If Cinderella\u2019s enchanted pumpkin coach had\u00a0been crafted from a squash, things might be a lot different today.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Beyond aesthetics, does the pumpkin even matter? This time of year, you can get practically anything you want made with the spirit of pumpkin spice, including\u00a0body lotion, vodka, chips, candles, and dog treats, with nary an actual pumpkin to be found. We discover that after Starbucks went to all that trouble to ensure your latte has real pumpkin in it,\u00a0surprise\u2014it\u2019s actually squash.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The proverbial #PSL rug has been pulled out from under us yet again, but now at least we know our pumpkin-themed fantasies were never rooted in reality. The emperor has no clothes;\u00a0the pumpkin puree has no pumpkin. The great and powerful Oz was just a man behind a curtain, and the true leader of the pumpkin cult is actually a squash. If authenticity is what you\u2019re after, order yourself a sweet, steaming squash-spice latte and take comfort that at last you\u2019ve found the real thing.<\/p>\n
Header Photo via Flickr<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nothing says autumn like the sight of golden leaves, oversized sweaters, and hefty orange pumpkins. We set them on our doorsteps to woo fall, carve them up for Halloween decor, toast their seeds, and puree their insides into the quintessential pie of Thanksgiving. Would a pumpkin by any other name taste as sweet? Yes, it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}