Meet the farmer who grows the pumpkins for your PSL
Farmer Jeff Leber shares a few of his secrets for growing the real pumpkins used in Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes. “We talk sweet to them.”
A half-day’s drive from the gray drizzle of Starbucks headquarters in Seattle – over the Cascade Mountains and into the bright sunshine of Walla Walla Valley – you’ll find rolling green fields dotted with little orange pumpkins that may one day be in your Pumpkin Spice Latte.
“Everybody thinks I raise jack-o’-lanterns, carving pumpkins,” said farmer Jeff Leber. “When I tell them I raise pumpkins for Pumpkin Spice Lattes, they don’t believe me. Because who would do that, right? Not a guy in a small town like this.”
Since 2018, Leber has been growing the pumpkins used in Starbucks iconic pumpkin beverages such as Pumpkin Spice Latte and Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew for Starbucks coffeehouses in North America.
The journey from patch to PSL
There’s a lot that goes into finding the perfect PSL pumpkin. The Starbucks beverage development team worked with agronomists and other experts to find just the right flavor profile and the optimal levels of starch and sugar. They settled on kabocha pumpkins, known for their smooth texture and pumpkin pie flavor. “After trying several different varieties, everyone fell in love with this one,” Leber said.
“We talk sweet to them,” Leber said. “I just say, ‘Come on honey, you can do this.’
Leber starts the growing season each spring, planting neat rows 44 inches apart. Every 17 inches, he’ll drop a seed, which usually produces three pumpkins. Then he carefully tends them through the whims of spring weather and waters them during the summer heat. By fall, they are between 3.5 and 5 pounds – and small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.
“People are surprised by what they look like,” Leber said. “Most people think of a big carving pumpkin. And kabocha pumpkins are just small, they’re solid.”
When they are ready to harvest, a mechanical picker strips the vines and pulls the pumpkins up a twirling chain to a side loader. Once loaded onto trucks bound to Othello, Wash., the pumpkins are puréed and ready to be combined with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves to create the sauce used in Starbucks Pumpkin Spice beverages.
But the real secret?
“We talk sweet to them,” Leber said. “I just say, ‘Come on honey, you can do this.’ We smile and give them a little encouragement. You have to giggle a little bit when you’re out there in the field because we know I’m not in charge. Mother Nature has the final say in it all.”
When PSL season arrives each autumn, Leber and a few friends toast the arrival of the season in the pumpkin fields with – what else? – a Pumpkin Spice Latte. It’s a tribute to both the pumpkins and the people who make it all happen.
“This time of year, everybody’s talking about the PSL, it’s all kind of surreal,” Leber said. “I mean, really, I do all that? It’s pretty neat to be part of it.”
