Lesser Evil Organic Popcorn – Pumpkin Spice
Suddenly, I'm a (Pumpkin) Spice Girl
Every autumn, the pumpkin spice goodies start proliferating as soon as the temperatures start to drop and the leaves start to fall. Before I can swap out my shorts for my sweaters in the front of my closet (hey, I have limited closet space; I have to rotate stuff seasonally), the shelves in stores are packed with pumpkin products. You can get pumpkin spice coffee creamer, tea, cookies, cereal, pasta, protein bars, butter, candy, noodles, air freshers, soap, candles, lip balms, perfume, and even deodorant.
The McCormick spice company first put “pumpkin pie spice” on the market in 1934. But pumpkin spice items really took off after Starbucks introduced Pumpkin Spice Lattes (PSLs) in 2003. Which spices are in “pumpkin spice”, exactly? Usually, it’s cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. Most of the time, I can take or leave pumpkin spice products. The famous PSL? I actually find it a bit too sweet.
But then Lesser Evil’s Pumpkin Spice Organic Popcorn came into my life.
Suddenly, I’m a Pumpkin Spice Girl.
I’ll tell you what I want – what I really, really want. I want to eat an entire bag of this popcorn. It’s that good.
The Lesser Evil pumpkin spice popcorn is delicately flavored with hints of cinnamon, nutmeg, and of course, pumpkin. It's not too sugary or sticky the way some sweet popcorn can be. The pumpkin spice-ness doesn’t hit you over the head. It’s more like a favorite soft cashmere turtleneck that you pull on before heading to an outdoor party in the fall.
Some of the popcorn pieces are more orange-hued and pumpkin-y than the others, which gives a wonderful balance to the whole thing – plus, it’s just fun. It reminds me a bit of the way Cracker Jacks have some variety in them with the popcorn pieces and the peanuts. The Lesser Evil popcorn is air-popped, which means it’s as light as the cumulus clouds that roll in over a pumpkin patch on a glorious autumn day when it’s a little cool, but not cold, with low humidity and a hint of a breeze. The popcorn is made with coconut oil and a sprinkle of Himalayan pink salt. Oh, and it’s organic, too.
Hate on pumpkin spice all you want. Call it “basic,” the food equivalent of the Dave Matthews Band. Sometimes not everything popular is bad (although sometimes, in the case of the Dave Matthews band, it is). Sometimes popular things are popular for a reason, like the kid in my high school who was genuinely nice to everyone. I wanted to dislike him on principle, but I could never find a reason to actually hate him. He was unfailingly nice to me (and everyone). He was our class President, a role everyone agreed was a perfect fit for him.
I am going to finish every last piece of popcorn in this bag of pumpkin spice organic popcorn. Will I wash it down with a pumpkin ale or drink a pumpkin spice-flavored coffee with it? Probably not. That might be a bridge too far. But I can’t wait to sit by my recently acquired outdoor fire pit on a crisp autumn evening, tossing handfuls of this popcorn into my mouth as I enjoy the all-too-brief time of year when it’s not too hot and not too cold, but perfectly balanced – just like Lesser Evil’s Pumpkin Spice Organic Popcorn.