The Washington Post tempers the decline by citing the “violent history” of America’s beloved seasonal tradition: pumpkin spice.
The report, titled “Autumn’s Favorite Spice Blend Has a Violent History,” sets the scene of the Dutch invasion of the Banda Islands (in modern-day Indonesia) in 1621 and describes: “Thousands were killed, others enslaved, and many fled to the Mountains.” were starved.
Historian Adam Clulow of the University of Texas at Austin told The Post: “The Dutch company was later accused of committing what some are calling the first case of corporate genocide… And all for Nutmeg,” the report notes , that nutmeg is “one of the three main spices in the mixture known as pumpkin spice.”
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The Washington Post is highlighting the “violent history” of everyone’s favorite pumpkin spice. (iStock)
“Many raw materials have a terrible history — “There’s sugar and tobacco to think about,” Clulow told The Post. “But nutmeg, used in pumpkin spice today, has the most horrific history of compression.” Thousands were killed.
“Today you can buy a jar of the spice blend, which typically consists of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger, for just $2.39 or drink it regularly at Starbucks.” “The popular Pumpkin Spice Latte believes the nutmeg was not grown by force,” The Post tells readers.
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Starbucks famous pumpkin spice latte. (Christina Tkacik/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Food historian Sarah Wassberg Johnson noted to the newspaper that while spices have always been a “natural trade route,” those who formulated pumpkin spice were “at odds with colonial history.”
“While the Banda Islands grew nutmeg, Amboina – a series of nearby islands also in Indonesia – was famous for cloves,” The Post continued. “The battle for control of the clove trade was almost as bloody and dramatic as the battles over nutmeg and almost drove the Netherlands and England to war in the early 17th century,” said Clulow, a spice historian.
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According to the report, cinnamon, which is primarily found in Sri Lanka, was under the control of several colonizers, from the Portuguese to the Dutch to the British.
“After the 15th century, as European explorers sought to bypass the middlemen and establish monopolies over sought-after spices, the willingness to trade with indigenous peoples waned and things began to turn violent,” Johnson said, The Post wrote.
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A selection of pumpkin flavored foods from Trader Joe’s. (Chris Borrelli/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Johnson further told the newspaper, “It’s true that if we didn’t consume foods that weren’t affected by slavery and indigenous displacement, we wouldn’t eat much… But whenever food enters the pop culture lexicon the way pumpkin spice does in.” the USA, It is important to acknowledge how it has reached us.”
The food historian said enslaved labor was key to the mass production and widespread availability of nutmeg and cloves, which many Europeans did not have access to in the 17th century.
Clulow told The Post that the image of Starbuck’s iconic pumpkin spice latte reminded him of 17th-century Dutch still life paintings, particularly Pieter Claesz’s “Still Life with Turkey Pie,” which depicts a table with “luxurious products,” including cinnamon and cloves.
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He said the painting was the “ultimate symbol of breathtakingly opulent, globalized consumerism in the 17th century,” adding: “The same goes for those Starbucks lattes. They get things from all over the world and repackage them for wealthy consumers without even realizing it.” the story of the ingredients.”
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