Every fall coffee menu in America used to tell the same story, and the main character was always pumpkin spice. In August, four major national chains launched fall lineups that give other flavors real estate that would have belonged to pumpkin a few years ago, and one of them replaced pumpkin spice entirely. The season still arrives with warm spices and whipped cream, but the flavor underneath is no longer a foregone conclusion.
Caramel apple pie is the seasonal coffee flavor on the McDonald’s McCafé menu this fall. The chain’s Caramel Apple Pie collection launched Aug. 18 across four drink formats, including iced coffee, hot and iced lattes and a blended frappe, all topped with salted-caramel-flavored whipped cream and apple pie crumbles.
Pumpkin spice will not be part of this year’s McCafé lineup. Last fall, those same menu boards carried a Pumpkin Spice Latte. One of the country’s largest restaurant chains looked at the most recognizable fall flavor in America and chose to bench it for apples.
Fall menus expanded well beyond one flavor
McDonald’s wasn’t the only chain giving non-pumpkin flavors top billing in August. In the same three-week stretch, Starbucks, Dunkin’ and Wendy’s all launched fall menus where pumpkin spice shares the spotlight with fall flavors that would have been unusual seasonal picks even two years ago. Apple, chai, tiramisu, pecan and marshmallow all earned featured billing alongside or instead of the traditional lineup.
Pumpkin spice’s share of the U.S. seasonal set fell 24.5% year over year, a decline measured across menu presence and consumer engagement signals. The flavor accounts for 4.86% of the seasonal set and 0.7% of menu presence, with a lifecycle stage now classified as declining.
Pumpkin kept its seat, but the table got bigger
Starbucks, the chain that introduced the Pumpkin Spice Latte more than two decades ago, brought it back on Aug. 25 with as much confidence as ever, adding three new pumpkin drinks to the lineup, including an Iced Pumpkin Cream Shaken Espresso, a Pumpkin Spice Chai and an Iced Pumpkin Cream Matcha. What changed is the size of the supporting cast.
The fall menu also includes the Chaider, a new chai-cider hybrid that pairs cinnamon and sweet spice with warm apple flavors, along with returning pecan drinks carrying brown-buttery notes and two new banana bread beverages. Apple Crisp, a recurring part of the fall roster in previous years, is not on the 2026 fall menu. Starbucks is treating fall as a multi-flavor season, and the non-pumpkin side of the menu keeps growing.
Tiramisu crashed the pumpkin party at Dunkin’
Five pumpkin drinks still lead the Dunkin’ fall menu, which launched Aug. 19 with a new Pumpkin Patch Cloud Latte and a Pumpkin Pie Coffee Chiller alongside returning favorites. Those familiar flavors now share the board with a four-drink tiramisu collection inspired by the classic Italian dessert, including a Tiramisu Cloud Latte, a Tiramisu Shakin’ Espresso, a Tiramisu Marshmallow Matcha and a Tiramisu Protein Latte.
The lineup leans into coffee notes and creamy sweetness, a profile that speaks the same emotional language of warmth and indulgence as pumpkin spice, just through a completely different flavor. The bet is that cozy doesn’t have to mean pumpkin.
The press release that called pumpkin spice out by name
Wendy’s named pumpkin spice directly in August when it introduced its new Apple Crumble Frosty Fusion as a fall option for customers craving seasonal flavors “beyond pumpkin spice.” The Frosty, available since Aug. 3, blends spiced apple syrup and oat crumbles into a vanilla base, delivering an apple-crumble-a-la-mode experience through a straw.
A burger chain choosing apple as its seasonal flavor and framing it against pumpkin spice in its own announcement indicates that the fall flavor conversation on 2026 menus isn’t limited to the coffee aisle.
The fall drink menu just got a lot more interesting
Pumpkin spice still sells, and nobody with a profitable seasonal lineup is going to pull it for the sake of novelty. But the 2026 fall menus suggest that operators are now building around the season itself, not around a single flavor. Apple, chai, tiramisu, pecan and marshmallow each earned a spot this year because they evoke the same warmth and indulgence that made pumpkin spice a phenomenon in the first place.
If the pattern holds into 2027, the question for operators won’t be whether to offer pumpkin spice. It will be how many non-pumpkin options sit next to it, and whether any of this year’s newcomers earn a permanent seat on the fall menu. The whipped cream still comes standard. The flavor underneath is now an open question.
Mandy Applegate is the creator behind Splash of Taste and seven other high-profile food and travel blogs. She’s also the co-founder of Food Drink Life Inc., a unique and highly rewarding collaborative blogger project. Her articles appear frequently on major online news sites, and she always has her eyes open to spot the next big trend.