A Cool Cult Cookie

Usually, you mindlessly pop it into your mouth. That caramelized cookie with your coffee, which they also turn into a spread. But in the US and China, the Belgian Speculoos cookie is a full-blown cult. According to CNN, it dates back to the seventeenth century.

We’ll forgive CNN the understandable mix-up with ‘speculaas’, which was indeed eaten with Saint Nicholas a few centuries ago. According to the Lotus website, the cookie, with its cinnamon flavor clearly indebted to the Saint Nicholas treat, was developed in 1932 by Belgian pastry chef Jan Boone. He named it ‘lotus’ after the flower that symbolizes purity.

World’s Fair

At the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels, the cookie with its rounded corners and embossed name achieved worldwide fame. Later came the recognizable individual freshness wrapper in red and white.

The Speculoos cookie: a cult in America and China.

In America, the brand name is Lotus Biscoff, with Biscoff being a contraction of ‘biscuit with coffee’. But it’s the same cookie. And a cult there. It has been served with great success on Delta Airlines flights for thirty years. Now also in XL size. There are foodies who only want to fly with that airline because of this cookie.

European Cultural Heritage

Americans regard it as part of that illustrious European cultural heritage to which Nutella also belongs. It’s called a ‘European gourmet cookie’. Because everything from Europe is gourmet, classic and sophisticated. As once again proved by the excitement surrounding the recent opening of the first American Nutella bar.

The European gourmet cookie.

Biscoff doesn’t have a bar, but it does have its own coffee corner in San Francisco, a pilgrimage site for Speculoos fans ‘to enjoy coffee the European way’. Various stores, such as Costco, also sell the cookies and Biscoff butter (Speculoos spread). Or their own-brand Speculoos cookie, like Trader Joe’s.

Beijing Cool

So don’t be surprised if, in a trendy American coffee bar, you spot an exotic little Biscoff cookie next to the home roasted pour-over coffee. I even came across one in a coffee shop in Beijing. When I expressed my surprise to the female barista that this cookie from Belgium was sitting on my saucer, she stared at me uncomprehendingly: ‘Belgium? No idea, this is just a very cool cookie.’