WaPo: The ‘dark history’ behind pumpkin spice lattes – IOTW Report

WaPo: The ‘dark history’ behind pumpkin spice lattes

Sunday, 1 September 2019, 12:00 MJA Uncategorized 30

BPR:

The Washington Post took a step off a journalistic cliff in a report that somehow demonized a favorite fall coffee drink.

Pumpkin Spice everything is making its annual comeback, but The Washington Post‘s Gillian Brockell issued a hot take on the real story behind the lattes and their signature flavors.

It’s not the calories or the caffeine intake that the article in the paper’s “Retropolis” section focused on, but the “dark history” of the spices used, like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves (especially nutmeg) which had its “violent” past linked to “war, genocide and slavery.”

“The variety of nutmeg we’re familiar with is native to the Banda Islands in what is now Indonesia,” Brockell wrote, noting that “the Bandanese became rich trading the spice” as it became more popular in Europe and Asia.

Brockell runs through the mini-history lesson, noting the roles played by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English in the succession of power in the age of colonialism. read more

30 Comments on WaPo: The ‘dark history’ behind pumpkin spice lattes

  2. ” … They seized the islands, built a fort and informed the Bandanese they were no longer allowed to trade with anyone else,”

    In the real world, might makes right and altruism means nothing.

    5

  4. Why stop there? Everything is connected to slavery, racism, etc. if this BS manner is the way one tracks history.

    If tea hasn’t already been targeted, expect it to be soon. Salt won’t escape scrutiny, but not because it’s salt, just because racism has to be dug out of every corner and slavery illuminated everywhere anything American existed.

    One day we shall return to normal, but not until these basement dwellers charge through their determination to make fools of themselves in every way imaginable.

    12

  6. I do enjoy a good pumpkin pie (extra whipped cream, please) but if you put the same spices in ANYTHING else, it becomes nauseating.

    And pumpkin spice latte? Ugn. For my enjoyment, good coffee ought not to be adulterated with anything, not even sugar or milk or cream. I want my coffee black, you hear me? BLACK!

    Does that make me a rayciss?

    21

  9. And the Banda islanders/Indonesians were living in a violence-free utopia before evil whitey got there. SURE. I think the journalist here should boycott ALL white male inventions starting today. Enjoy your patch of grass underneath a tree.

    11

  10. When I use the nearby highway I have to drive right past a sewage treatment plant. I shudder to think that over the next couple of months there just might be enough unmetabolized pumpkin spice excreta that the odor will be even worse than usual.

    7

  11. Planet earth is racist.
    The moon is sexist
    The Sun has appeared in blackface
    The Milky Way is homophobic
    The local group is connected to genocide
    The Virgo Cluster is related to slavery
    The entire Universe was founded on hate and white supremacy

    11

  16. Read an article once about the danger and history of alcohol. So I just stopped reading shit like that. I lived happily ever after.
    Some people, actually a lot of people lead miserable lives.
    Gillian Brockell is just one.

    6

  17. It’s not the calories or the caffeine intake that the article in the paper’s “Retropolis” section focused on, but the “dark history” of the spices used, like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves (especially nutmeg) which had its “violent” past linked to “war, genocide and slavery.”

    You could replace a couple words there and be talking about the Democrat party. Which had its violent past linked to war genocide and slavery… Let’s ban them. Start there.

    10

  20. Stop wearing cotton fabrics, you slave-loving white trash. Don’t you realize someone’s ancestors had to suffer boll weevil bites toiling and picking, toiling and picking, toiling and picking in the fields to make your goddamn boxer shorts?

    6

  21. After Thanksgiving every year, the markdown bin at my local supermarket is piled high with all things pumpkin spice. Coffee, tea, cookie mix, cereal, Jello – you name it, it comes in pumpkin spice flavor. Nobody buys it.

    You’d think after a while they’d get smart and quit ordering the stuff.

    11

  23. WSJ. had an article on the first Porche ever built the other week. Pretty much the same deal. Not much on the car, way to much on the DARK HISTORY of Dr. Porche.

    Not sure what this trend forebodes.

    6

  24. I just happen to know that Van der Luen at AmericanDigest detests pumpkin spice with a a white hot, venomous hatred. Geoff C. and I take him something with pumpkin spice whenever we visit.

    So many countries would now be prosperous, peaceful, industrious members of the West if they had just let the British, Dutch, and (maybe) the French continue their governance. I keep imagining what a pit the Hawaiian islands would be today if we hadn’t made them a state.

    5

  30. I know many of you here detest this, but here goes anyway:

    Since September 1st I have had one pumpkin spice latte from starbucks a day. I missed it. 🙂

    I also made pumpkin loaf and used pumpkin spice. lol.

    2

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