"Food Babe" blogger's call answered by Starbucks
Vani Hari has taken some knocks in recent months for what critics say is her unscientific approach to writing about healthy eating. But at least one major restaurant chain seems to be paying attention to the self-proclaimed "Food Babe" blogger.
A year after Hari started a campaign to get Starbucks (SBUX) to rid its popular pumpkin spice latte of what she calls "toxins," the coffee giant says it is changing the ingredients of its popular espresso drink.
The seasonal beverage will be made without artificial caramel coloring this year, Starbucks said Monday on its website. The pumpkin spice latte will also include actual pumpkin this go round.
"After hearing from customers and partners about ingredients, we took another look at this beverage and why we created it so many years ago," Peter Dukes, Starbucks' director of espressos America, wrote in a blog post. So, with that great taste you know and love, the PSL returns this fall, and this time it will be made with real pumpkin and without caramel coloring."
Starbucks has sold the drink for roughly a decade, with its popularity spurring a slew of knockoffs from other food and beverage companies.
Hari's campaign against the pumpkin spice latte's sparked a counter blog by Yvette d'Entremont, or the SciBabe (formerly Science Babe). As she put it: "When Vani Hari, a.k.a. the Food Babe, took a swipe at her pumpkin spice lattes? It was a call to arms. You just don't mess with a native Bostonian's PSL."