Prior to joining Ceremony Coffee Roasters, barista Noelle Nelson worked at Starbucks, home to the pumpkin spice latte. “I’m just a little bit traumatized from how heavy the [PSL] launches used to be,” she said.

So when Nelson was creating a new seasonal drink for Ceremony’s fall menu, she turned to apples instead. The barista’s beverage pairs apple cider with a shot of espresso and an apple chip garnish. “I’m kind of tired of pumpkin,” said Nelson, who wore a “Nightmare on Elm Street” T-shirt and black eyeliner in pointed teardrop shapes. “For the last 10 years, it’s been all pumpkin spice.”

As customers and baristas suffer burnout from so many years of pumpkin spice everything, apple appears to be gaining ground in the battle for the flavor of fall.

It’s a fitting development in Maryland, where the number of apple orchards climbed 20% from 2017 to 2022. The state is currently celebrating Maryland Apple Month, a promotion started last year by Gov. Wes Moore. “Move over Pumpkin Spice Latte, apples are having their moment this fall,” declared the agriculture department in a 2023 release announcing the event. (We should note that pumpkin spice was first popularized by Maryland’s own McCormick & Company.)

Even Starbucks seemed to acknowledge pumpkin spice fatigue this year. On Aug. 22 — the date comes earlier just about every year — the coffee chain rolled out its fall menu, which includes multiple apple-flavored options as well as the more famous PSL. And sharing top billing alongside their stalwart latte in the press release? A new apple chai “perfectly captures the taste and feeling of fall,” according to Starbucks beverage developer Rosalyn Batingan.

Baltimore’s Charmery makes a pumpkin spice-flavored ice cream, but “every year we make less and less,” said owner David Alima. The flavor is in demand for only a short window. “The second Thanksgiving is over, no one wants anything to do with pumpkin.” There have been years that the Charmery had tubs of pumpkin ice cream left over and no one to buy it. “I eat it myself,” he said.

In contrast, The Charmery also produces two apple flavors — apple butter and apple cider sorbet — with cult followings.

Alima, who proudly calls himself “team apple,” organizes the annual Apple Fest at the Union Collective, where the Charmery’s Hampden factory is located. Held this year on Nov. 9, the event will feature Union vendors rolling out apple-flavored products like coffee drinks and cocktails. Alima calls it “a fun celebration to the humble apple.” No squashes in sight. “I would never do a pumpkin fest,” he said.

The Charmery owner Alima also appreciates the regional appeal of apples and, like many Marylanders, goes apple picking with his kids in the fall. There are a plethora of places to choose from, with 252 apple orchards across Maryland, up from 205 in 2017, according to the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture.

This week in particular is a big one for the country’s most popular fruit: Jews in Baltimore and around the world will celebrate Rosh Hashanah by dipping apples in honey, a prayer for a sweet new year.

The flavor may be gaining ground at coffee shops and ice cream parlors, but the question of what an apple tastes like doesn’t have an easy answer, as more and more flood the marketplace.

At Shaw Orchards in Harford County, this year’s harvest includes 20 to 30 varieties, including the new Ludacrisp, which owner Barron Shaw said is a “smack-you-in-your-face kind of apple.”

But there could be too much of a good thing, he argued. “The apple industry, from a macro perspective, has too many apples right now,” he said. Farmers like him are all hoping to land on “the next Honeycrisp” and experimenting with a range of new breeds.

He’s even seen a recent trend in the apple world as interest rises in fruits with tropical flavors. “You close your eyes and you eat and think, ‘Gee, was that an apple?’”

As customers order their drinks at the Ceremony in Harbor Point, they can register their allegiance to either apples or pumpkins at the tip jars, where a sign saying “TIP WARS!!” asks them to pick between two pint glasses. During Nelson’s shift, the winner was clear. The glass adorned with a photo of an orchard was stuffed full of dollar bills, while the cup sporting an image of a patch had just a buck or two.

She was happy to see it.