Could A PSL Shortage Be Coming To Starbucks?

People anticipate the return of fall each year for a variety of reasons. The Odyssey Online chronicles reasons like leaves on trees changing colors in some parts of the world and popular sporting events. Also appearing on that list is a seasonal beverage that Starbucks customers love to "gourd" themselves on each year — the pumpkin spice latte. If early indications prove accurate, you might have to pumpkin spice your own latte in 2022, though.

The Business of Business details how the Starbucks "PSL" has become a part of pop culture, narrowly surviving product testing in 2003 and becoming the coffee shop chain's best-selling drink by 2013. The outlet also states that since the PSL took off, other coffee chains and myriad other food products have tried to cash in on the hysteria for pumpkin spice products whose return essentially marks an unofficial beginning of fall each year. In 2022, the need to watch for the first drop of these coveted lattes at your nearest Starbucks could be even greater.

One Redditor posted an image of a Starbucks beverage with a tower of whipped cream on top to r/starbucks and said "Pumpkin spice done right. Made pumpkin spice whipped cream and it should def be a menu item." However, the creation did not draw universal acclaim. In fact, the comments revealed some interesting information.

One user chimed in and said, "Corporate said to stop opening pumpkin spice early because they're already experiencing spot outages...the whole bottle will only be good for a short time after launch." It's important to note that Starbucks has not confirmed that any stores have yet to, or will, experience outages of the syrup that provides the flavors for PSL drinks. This comment could be merely a cautious employee who has experienced product outages before sharing their perspective. If that is the case, there could be some legitimacy to their warning.

In 2012, SELF reported that some Starbucks locations did experience temporary PSL outages due to simply not having enough supply to meet the demand. However, the outages were isolated to a few Starbucks locations. In 2021, Starbucks made it a point to send plenty of the syrup to its stores weeks ahead of the PSL's launch to ensure they had enough supply (per Business Insider). That could very well be the case ahead of the 2022 launch date.

Time will tell whether this Reddit comment is more prediction or speculation. Either way, the PSL is returning and bringing fall with it.