Arizona Leads America’s Search for Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Are You Among Them?

Some Americans wait for a cool morning to think about pumpkin spice lattes.

In Arizona, we could be waiting a while.

A new analysis of Google search trends found that Arizona shows more interest in pumpkin spice lattes than any other state.

The research explains where that ranking comes from and what it actually measures.

Where the Ranking Comes From

Innerbody Research combed through Google Trends data to see which states search for pumpkin spice lattes the most this fall.

The company also checked five years of that same search history to find out when interest in the drink usually peaks.

The pattern never changes.

Searches for pumpkin spice lattes spike every August, weeks before pumpkin spice season officially starts.

Innerbody separately ranks states on overall coffee love, a broader index built from coffee shops, brewing gear, and big chains.

The numbers below come from their smaller pumpkin spice latte category, not that broader index.

The numbers below show which states search hardest for a pumpkin spice latte, and Arizona comes out on top.

Fall Flavor in Triple-Digit Heat

Arizona residents watch triple digits linger into September and still search for a pumpkin spice latte more than anyone else in the country.

August’s normal high in Phoenix lands at 105.1 degrees, per the National Weather Service’s 1991-2020 climate data, the third straight month the city’s normal high has topped 100.

Phoenix averages 111 days a year at 100 degrees or hotter, per that same 1991-2020 dataset.

Innerbody doesn’t say what drives Arizona’s lead, only that the state searches for the drink harder than any other.

The heat likely shapes how many locals order it, though.

Starbucks sells the pumpkin spice latte iced as well as hot, and plenty of Arizonans probably reach for the cold version on a 105-degree afternoon.

That search score landed Arizona at 100 out of 100, the highest of any state Innerbody measured, ahead of Colorado, Kentucky, and every other state in the country.

Where Colorado and Kentucky Land

Colorado came closest to catching Arizona, landing at 96 out of 100 in Innerbody’s pumpkin spice latte index.

Kentucky sat third at 92, just ahead of California’s 89.

Ohio, Illinois, and Virginia tied at 87, and Indiana and Wisconsin followed at 86.

Missouri rounded out the top ten at 84.

Five of the top ten sit in or near the Midwest, a cluster Innerbody’s write-up calls a regional pattern without pinning down a single cause.

A separate study told a different story a year earlier.

A two-week Google Trends snapshot published in September 2025 by SupremeWhip, a whipped-topping company, had crowned Colorado the top pumpkin-spice-obsessed state.

Arizona sat in fifth place then, scoring 93.

Not anymore.

A longer read of the data, the kind Innerbody ran this year, can flip a two-week snapshot within a single season.

Innerbody’s numbers are the current ones, and they put Arizona in front.

Why Fall Flavors Hit Early

Searches for the drink climb every August, before fall weather arrives almost anywhere, and researchers have a few ideas why the craving shows up early.

Longwood University psychologist Catherine Franssen has traced part of the craving back to childhood.

Many people meet cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove first in a kitchen, baked into a family recipe, long before they ever taste a latte.

That early pairing wires the flavor combination to comfort, so one sip years later can trigger the same good feeling as a holiday dessert.

Sugar makes the pull stronger.

When pumpkin spice blends land on top of a sweetened, milk-based drink, the brain links the flavor and the sugar together.

That link is part of what keeps people reaching for the same order year after year, per Franssen’s research.

The drink vanishes every winter and comes back for only a few weeks each fall, and that short window is exactly the point.

Licensed counselor Claudia Skowron has tied that reaction to the scarcity principle, the same psychology that makes a limited-time item feel more urgent to try.

It’s learned, not seasonal.

People feel that pull whether or not a cool September morning ever shows up.

Comfort wired in early, sugar reinforcing it, scarcity sharpening it. None of that waits for cooler weather.

That may be why searches climb every August, long before most of the country cools off.

A Shrinking National Search

Pumpkin spice lattes still lead Arizona's search rankings, even as the drink loses ground almost everywhere else.

Reader's Digest cited three states where pumpkin spice was the top-searched latte flavor by late August 2026, down from forty-eight states two years earlier.

Matcha claimed twenty-nine states this year, and chai took eighteen more, according to that same report.

That same report tracked a matching surge in raw search volume.

Queries for "pumpkin spice latte" jumped 350 percent over the past month.

Queries for "when do pumpkin spice lattes come out" rose 510 percent.

Reader's Digest measures which flavor wins each state's search field, a different question than Innerbody's search-interest score.

Matcha's rise there looks more like a wellness trend spreading into new states than proof pumpkin spice is losing ground where it already leads.

Arizona's score didn't move.

It's still 100 out of 100, the highest of any state in the country.