Pumpkin spice and everything nice

Thank God we are almost through the fall season.

If it were much longer, I would probably have a mouthful of cavities and a fat belly to match.

During this time of year, I scour the grocery aisles looking for new seasonal treats laden with my favorite fall flavors: pumpkin spice and candy corn.

My chiropractor told me that God gave us a sweet tooth for fruits.

While I do enjoy red delicious apples, muscadines, mangos and such, my sweet tooth goes berserk for  pumpkin spice and everything nice.

And this year, I found a real doozy: Pumpkin spice Oreos. The deep and creamy orange center is crammed between two golden cookies.

Add these to my already favorite pumpkin flavored products, and I’m a cookie away from being a pumpkin-spice addict:

Pumpkin spice doughnuts. Pumpkin spice lattes. Pumpkin spice creamer for my pumpkin spice coffee. Pumpkin spice Hersey’s kisses.

There’s even pumpkin cheesecake ice cream and pumpkin-flavored beer, I hear. I’ll pass on the beer, but am eager to try a bowl of the cold stuff.

Apparently, I am not alone in my addiction. According to Neilsen, sales of all pumpkin-flavored foods and beverages increased 14 percent in 2013 compared to 2012.

And in the last five years alone, pumpkin sales have jumped 34 percent, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Just to think, it was only 10 years ago that Starbucks introduced its pumpkin spice latte, which led to this craze.

Because of the popularity, some stores are stocking the aisles with pumpkin flavored products as early as July.

Not so lucky with the Oreos. They only debuted for eight weeks and are hard to find. As I was buying a bag last week at a store out of town, the Nabisco vendor said they were not restocking them this year. So I grabbed another.

There was a TV news report recently about a woman who bought a year’s worth of pumpkin spice lattes so she could enjoy them all year long.

Now that’s an idea. 

But on second thought, I’ll part ways with my newfound guilty pleasure until next fall – before I turn into a pumpkin.