Fall is officially here, and the ASU campus is already noticing. The weather's cooler, there's a crisper aura and more students and faculty are deciding to wear sweatshirts and pants instead of your typical t-shirt and shorts.
After the average temperature in Phoenix during September was in the upper 90s, it has slowly dropped to the high 80s this week. It's not a significant temperature change, but if there are more sweatshirts and sweaters, something "fall" is obviously in the air.
So, what is that makes students notice fall’s officially in-session?
It’s definitely not the occasional 100-degree weather. Instead, for many ASU students, it's their go-to fall drink.
When asked how freshman biomedical science major Anju "Teresa" Joseph knows when it's fall, she thinks about her Starbucks experience.
"It kinda starts off with the Starbucks menu changing," Joseph said.
The leaked Starbucks menu revealed the pumpkin spice flavor and apple crisp flavor on Aug. 24, 2023, a whole week before they announced the fall menu last year on Aug. 30, 2022.
So, for many ASU students, the new flavors mean a new season has just begun. Of the two options, pumpkin spice and chai lattes are overwhelmingly the most commonly ordered drink at Starbucks when pumpkin spice is available. But why pumpkin spice?
"I like its sweetness," freshman nursing major Payton Stewart said. "I'm not a big fan of fruits in drinks, so apple crisp seemed less appealing to me."
"The warm spices of pumpkin spice are recognizable to be in the fall season," freshman actuarial science major Noel Steinbeck said.
But, Starbucks isn't often the only place you can find fall flavors. Steinbeck noted that she has a similar, yet different taste when she goes to Dutch Bros.
"At Dutch, it's the pumpkin caramel crème brulee latte with oat milk," Steinbeck said.
Despite the different drinks, most of them have a common theme: pumpkin spice. The recognizability of fall often starts with pumpkin spice being in store.
"I'm from Iowa, so we have more drastic seasonal changes," Stewart said. "So fall to me was always the atmosphere of fall, including pumpkins."
But for some, the indication that fall is here doesn’t always have to be when pumpkin is in store.
"I'd argue that Starbucks starts their fall drinks a little bit too early for fall," Stewart said.
But what about apple crisp? Joseph is an avid apple crisp macchiato fan, an anomaly among a huge population of pumpkin spice lovers.
"In previous years, it's been colder. And for pumpkin spice lattes, especially, it’s better to have them warm because there are spices and stuff, and it's aromatic," Joseph said. "But this year, it's 100 degrees and I’m not going to drink a hot drink. I also feel that Apple is a good transitional flavor. It's still technically fall, but apple is a lighter drink."
Either way, Starbucks' new menu flavors are extremely popular, as both Joseph and Steinbeck exclaimed their drinks are often out when they go to order at their local Starbucks.
"They've been out of apple crisp before, and especially during the hot days, people don't gravitate toward the PSL as much," Joseph said.
As fall progresses, be sure to check out the new Starbucks flavors and give them a try yourself. But make sure to go early because you never know when they may be out of stock.
Fall drinks can be one way that students at ASU express their love for fall. Regarding Phoenix, it doesn’t have the most obvious fall season. So, for many, coffee shops give that crisp aura and seasonal remedy that a cooler fall environment may bring. If it's not coffee shops or fall drinks for you, what's your pumpkin spice?
Edited by Claire van Doren, Walker Smith and Caera Learmonth.
Reach the reporter at gachatht@asu.edu.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on X.
