Pumpkin Spice Hero: The Thrilling But Tragic True Story of Nutmeg

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2023

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

No pumpkin spice latte, cookie, candle, or seasonal can of Spam (yes, really) would be the same without one of its key flavors: nutmeg, a warm, woody spice grated from the seed of a tropical fruit. But back in the 1600s, nutmeg wasn’t so common that you could put it in everything from coffee to soap. In fact, nutmeg once grew only in one place in the entire world: the Banda Islands, a Pacific archipelago too tiny to even appear on regular maps. To get their precious nutmeg, European sailors had to brave a three-year journey filled with the possibility of shipwreck, storms, scurvy, dysentery, starvation, and death—so it's not surprising that the spice was so valuable that the crew weren't allowed to have pockets in their clothing, in case they smuggled some ashore for themselves! But how did one heroic Brit, Nathaniel Courthope, end up changing the course of nutmeg history—and, with it, the fate of not just pumpkin spice lattes, but also the city of New York? Listen now for the spicy, swashbuckling tale behind the season's favorite flavor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Yes, it's that special time of year where we voluntarily imbibe pumpkin spice lattes. But what is strange is that pumpkin spice foods inexplicably seem to grow more omnipresent every year, even though
0:17.2	there's no actual pumpkin in the drinks.
0:20.3	Come on, John, there doesn't have to be pumpkin in it.
0:22.8	It's all about the spice part.
0:24.7	But John Oliver is right that these days,
0:27.1	there's kind of pumpkin spice everything.
0:30.3	Your favorite
0:33.7	coffee-made seasonal flavors are back. So add some delicious coffee-made pumpkin spice to your favorite time of the year.
0:37.6	In the past two hours I had to go to like four different stores trying to find this.
0:41.6	Pumpkin-sp spice Oreos.
0:44.5	So far, so basic.
0:45.9	But pumpkin spice doesn't stop with coffee and cookies.
0:49.2	Buff City Soaps pumpkin spice bar soap
0:51.5	smells like a warm slice of Grandma's famous pumpkin bread.
0:55.0	Smell so good, you'll want to eat it.
0:58.0	But wait, there's more and I have to admit I'm a little bit horrified.
1:02.0	If you love pumpkin spice you're gonna love me. And I have to admit I'm a little bit horrified.
1:02.6	If you love pumpkin spice, you're gonna love me.
1:05.3	Who said that?
1:06.8	Over here, it's me.
1:08.8	Bud Light's new pumpkin spice celtzer.
1:12.1	Crack me open open take a sip
	...

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