Starbucks answers customer complaints over pumpkin flavor

A company blog post promised that the new recipe for the popular pumpkin spice latte will include pumpkin puree instead of the previous, pumpkin-free flavoring.

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http:///Last year, the blogger “Food Babe,” real name Vani Hari, wrote an exposé-style blog post about Starbucks’ pumpkin spice lattes. The big takeaway: There was no pumpkin in them.

Hari posted the ingredients list, which simply listed “natural flavors” and “artificial flavors.” She also pointed out that the drink contained class IV caramel color, which she quoted the International Agency for Research on Cancer as calling “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”

Hari’s post went viral, and her revelation about the lack of pumpkin in the drinks even made it into a segment on John Oliver’s HBO show “Last Week Tonight.”

Months later, Starbucks is now stepping up to answer the complaints. In a Monday blog post, one of the creators of the pumpkin spice latte, Peter Dukes, wrote that the recipe is changing to include real pumpkin and get rid of the caramel color:

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