In honor of fall and holiday memories of yesteryear, I decided to embark on a mission destined to fail: Could I eat every pumpkin spice-flavored product on the market?

(Spoiler alert: I couldn't)

Before we delve into my abhorrent failure, there has been one nagging question I've been marinating on since I first started this quest: What exactly is pumpkin spice?

You could argue that pumpkin spice is just pumpkin pie. Or maybe it's just pumpkin? Conversely, pumpkin spice could literally be the spices you put in pumpkin pie, which for most bakers is clove, allspice, ginger and cinnamon.

The more I eat, the less I'm sure of either.

Before pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks took over the world, we never really knew how good fall could be. Now, everything from your morning coffee to salad mix has some type of pumpkin flavoring in it, reminding you that, yes, fall is here and it's brought to you by the color orange, cream cheese frosting and some amalgamation of "spices."

Here's the list of everything I tried:

Of all the things I tried, the two items I kept coming back to were the Tollhouse pumpkin spice cookies and the pumpkin-spiced pumpkin seeds. The cookies actually tasted like pumpkin (and were made with real pumpkin), didn't have the typical chemical-y aftertaste and were peppered with white chocolate chips. The pumpkin seeds were sweet and crunchy with a touch of spice. As I'm writing this, I'm considering eating more of both, which is impressive.

Most of the other things I ate ranged somewhere between "uninspiring" and "hope to never see again," with even some of those in the gravest category having me come back for a second bite or sip out of curiosity's sake (maybe it gets better?).

One of the most difficult parts of this entire process though wasn't forcing myself to bear the shame of being that girl with an entire cart filled with pumpkin spice products, but actually ever managing to find them. Some things were simple (pumpkin spice lattes, available on nearly every corner), others required more intense sleuthing -- I must've visited anywhere from three to five Fred Meyers and Safeways and found barely anything there. Trader Joe's reigns supreme as the Mecca of pumpkin spice, and as the cashier told me, "there's more coming in every day," which I can veritably believe.

Because sourcing everything was tricky, h

ere's a list of some of the other things I didn't try but wanted to:

Pumpkin spice Pringles

Polar pumpkin spice seltzer

Rossi Pasta pumpkin spice fettuccini

Pumpkin spice Country Crock

Ghiradelli pumpkin spice caramel squares

Pumpkin spice Milanos

Pumpkin spice coffee -- Keurig pods included (a whole bag? sorry.)

And because you need to have standards, here's where I drew the line:

Cedar's pumpkin spice hummus

Burnett's pumpkin spice vodka

Pumpkin spice moonshine from Corsair Distillery

Have you seen other pumpkin spice-flavored products on the market? Where and what? Want to hear my full thoughts on something in particular? Let's talk about it in the comments. Meanwhile, I'm going to find a different flavor anything to eat for a few days.