Talk:Speculoos
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Copied from Talk:Speculaas
Comments
Maybe Hasselt is famous for its speculaas, but I don't think it's a typically Belgian biscuit. I've seen it more often in Holland anyway. I would just say it's from the Low Countries. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 145.53.138.11 (talk • contribs) 18:23 29 April 2006 (UTC)
I think the Dutch version (Speculaas) is fairly different from the Belgium version. The Dutch version contains much more spices compared to the Belgium version. I have eaten both, and I find them very hard to compare. Arnoutf (talk) 20:16, 14 December 2008 (UTC)
- I first encountered them in Luxembourg where they were called Spekuloos (in Luxemburgish, I think) but they were the thin spiced ginger version served with coffee which I have also been served in Trier (Germany), so basically they were what people here seem to be calling Speculaas. The recipe I was given (by a Dutch person) was titled Speculaas and matched roughly what I was used to. Tympan (talk) 16:02, 8 May 2026 (UTC)
speculaas/speculoos
The NYT source cited in the sentence stating that speculaas originated in Eelko, Belgium does not cite this, hence this phrase was removed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.206.119.252 (talk) 04:32, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
Google might be showing more hits for speculoos, but it should be called speculaas mainly because speculaas is closer to the word speculator and speculatie (see dutch version) of wich it is possibly derived. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.80.192.91 (talk) 14:12, 28 December 2011 (UTC) Google search shows a lot more hits for speculoos then for speculaas (in English websites) so I think this article should be renamed.Nico (talk) 12:45, 25 November 2011 (UTC)
- I moved it (but forgot the edit summary), but know I realized I checked on google.nl (but with English results only in advanced search), if I search with google.com speculoos still wins but the difference is much smaller. I someone things the move was inappropriate, please discus here.Nico (talk) 12:55, 25 November 2011 (UTC)
- Almost every brand of speculaas I've seen on the shelves over the years uses "speculaas" - including brands that were not imports from the Netherlands. In fact, I found this article by googling "speculaas" (on North American google) and the only hit with "speculoos" was this article. 96.49.243.149 (talk) 21:56, 3 December 2011 (UTC)
- The name is clearly NOT speculoos/speculaas but Spekulatius and it's place of origin is neither Belgium nor the Netherlands but Germany! This article is ridiculous and biased, clearly written by a Belgian or Dutch person! Articles on Wikipedia must be neutral and cite sources which this article, at least in the case of the place of origin, does not!!! --92.223.57.44 (talk) 06:58, 30 January 2012 (UTC)
- I have family in all three countries, and let me tell you that speculoos/speculaas (both are correct) is most popular in Belgium/the Netherlands. I asked my German relatives about "Spekulatius" and they had never heard of it... Go troll someone else. M. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.254.84.58 (talk) 14:36, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
- What matters is the name used in the English speaking world at present, not the most original name. (the origin of the food can of course be described in the article)Nico (talk) 13:58, 30 January 2012 (UTC)
- The name is clearly NOT speculoos/speculaas but Spekulatius and it's place of origin is neither Belgium nor the Netherlands but Germany! This article is ridiculous and biased, clearly written by a Belgian or Dutch person! Articles on Wikipedia must be neutral and cite sources which this article, at least in the case of the place of origin, does not!!! --92.223.57.44 (talk) 06:58, 30 January 2012 (UTC)
People, you can debate the name all you want, but as a Dutch person living in Belgium, I can tell you that they are in fact related but different types of products. Speculaas is the original Dutch recipe, using speculaaskruiden (speculaas herbs), a mix including a.o. cinnamon, nut meg and clove. Even the speculaas you can occasionally buy in Belgium has these herbs. Speculoos (literally: Specu-less, without speculaas herbs), is a related but sweeter product with a similar structure that does not has these specific herbs, but uses caramel and sugar instead. The speculoos is much more popular in Belgium, and almost non-existant in the Netherlands. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.128.116.165 (talk) 06:14, 24 October 2012 (UTC)
- I totally agree with the above. I'm Dutch and can verify that speculoos means "specu-less". Speculaas and Speculoos are not the same Cbetta (talk) 14:18, 6 March 2013 (UTC)
- I (Flemish living in Netherlands) disagree. 'Loos' indeed mean without, but not necessary (what would 'laas' mean than?). The origin of the words is explained in the etymologiebank. About the herbs: it is definitely true that the Dutch version contains more of them in average, but the difference between different brands is bigger than the difference between countries, for example the Dutch speculaas from c1000 is very sweet.Nico (talk) 13:59, 7 March 2013 (UTC)
- I totally agree with the above. I'm Dutch and can verify that speculoos means "specu-less". Speculaas and Speculoos are not the same Cbetta (talk) 14:18, 6 March 2013 (UTC)
In the USA "speculoos" is a cookie butter made from speculaas cookies. [1] [2] "Speculaas" is the cookie though and should be the name of this article. [3] [4] [5] 76.221.213.176 (talk) 12:35, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
Sugar used.
It's my understanding, from reading European food forums and chefs' baking blogs, that when Europeans use "brown sugar" in speculoos (or anything else), they mean a raw, less refined type of cane sugar. (Cane sugar is the preferred variety in Europe.) However, in the USA, "brown sugar" is merely very refined white sugar, cane or beet, with a little of the stripped molasses re-added, then spun to mix. The spinning creates fluffiness, hence recipe instructions to firmly pack US-type brown sugar tightly into a measuring cup - in order to squeeze out the air spaces between crystals.
European-type brown sugar is also called cassonade, turbinado, demerara, or "raw" cane sugar. Either one or more of these items are currently available in US supermarkets or health food stores. Popular European brands are "Daddy" and "Saint Louis", but they are hard to find in the USA. Another option is jaggery, frequently sold in a hard, pressed cone shape, at your local Indian market - even many small cities in the US now have access to one. Coarse grate it in order to retain the granularity.
This type of raw cane sugar is used in the cookies not just for imparting a more subtle sweetness than refined sugar, but also to add a more robust flavor and increased texture due to coarse granularity of the product.
1. More: cassonade "[These] forums are a service of the Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to advancement of the culinary arts." [|Homepage]
Thank you, Wordreader (talk) 19:07, 10 January 2015 (UTC)
- Dutch brown sugar is almost exactly how you describe the US brown sugar and is almost always beet sugar (which is grown in large quantities in the Netherlands while the climate does not allow for sugarcane). Cane sugar is much rarer and more expensive in the Netherlands, and more likely to be found in specialty shops/sections rather than as mainstream sugar types. Arnoutf (talk) 18:11, 7 September 2015 (UTC)
Sounds like a advert for these Belgium firms selling a "speculoos" spread.
The second reference is clearly commercial for Speculoos spread and has no business in this article as a reference.
Very disappointed to read this in Wikipedia as most would agree it is related to Dutch Sinterklaas celebrations and the Dutch East Indies spice trade. Parts of the article seem to be copied nearly wholesale from other commercial websites. As someone raised by dutch parents eating Speculaas sandwiches is also a very common southern Dutch practice and my experience goes to the middle 1950's.
Just as French claim Hollandaise sauce where the earliest recipes are from Holland using eggs and vinegar. But rewriting history seems to be very common these days. I guess people will believe what they want, good luck.
Spices are not related to the VOC, but were already used in medieval cuisine
The spices have little to do with Dutch East Indies spice trade. In fact, the spices were used even more extensively in (late-)medieval cuisine, where they were used not only in sweet pastry, but also in sauces to accompany meat, fish or vegetables. See the Wikipedia article on Medieval Cuisine Cmuusers (talk) 11:00, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
- Your point about medieval cuisine is valid in itself, but it overlooks a key economic distinction. Medieval cookbooks reflect elite cooking, not everyday or mass consumption, which depends on low costs, stable supply, and scalability.
- This is where the Dutch and Belgian contexts diverge. In the Dutch Republic, access to the East Indies spice trade meant that spices such as cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg were cheaper and more readily available than in neighbouring regions. That made their use in mass-produced baked goods like speculaas economically viable.
- In Belgium, 19th-century biscuit industrialisation followed a different path. It became closely tied to cheap and locally produced beet sugar, which was ideal for large-scale production. This favoured simpler, caramelised biscuits relying on sugar and browning reactions rather than on expensive imported spices, leading to speculoos. Ifonlywe (talk) 13:47, 29 December 2025 (UTC)
Windmill cookie
This redirects to this page. There should be something on this page about them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.29.4.151 (talk) 01:34, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
Speculoos tastes real different from speculaas
They don't taste the same at all, completely different cookies in terms of taste. The Belgian one tastes better, of course, I don't know if it's due to the different formula or due to the fact that Belgian foods just always taste better for some reason. Just wanted to throw that out there in case anyone's curious. Dapperedavid (talk) 20:11, 21 July 2021 (UTC)
A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:
Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 20:21, 20 June 2022 (UTC)
Ad for syrup product on this page?
I’m not sure if this is the way of going about this but I’m somewhat concerned about the picture of syrup with a link to the company’s website on this page. Is this normal for Wikipedia? 2604:2D80:ED8D:7400:384F:A0D0:214F:5EF5 (talk) 04:25, 2 February 2023 (UTC)
- The image definitely seems inappropriate, though I'm not sure if it violates a specific policy. That being said, since the page isn't about that brand in particular I don't think an external link is warranted and will remove it. Paris1127 (talk) 05:58, 2 February 2023 (UTC)
- The user that added it has a username that matches with a linkedin user that has a digital marketing company listed as current occupation.
- that digital marketing company has the subject of the image as a client. This was absolutely part of an advertisement. 198.27.176.106 (talk) 22:26, 7 February 2023 (UTC)
Speculoos coffee
Merge (or redirect) Speculaas
Speculass is the traditional name for what is now commonly known internationally as Speculoos. Information on the history and variety of the biscuit is in this, the Speculoos, article. We no longer need the Speculaas article as it simply mirrors the information here. The Speculass article now needs to be redirected to Speculoos. SilkTork (talk) 11:25, 8 August 2025 (UTC)
- Merge completed. SilkTork (talk) 17:29, 15 August 2025 (UTC)
- I'm sorry, but they really aren't the same thing. Speculoos is biscoff, while speculaas is a traditional Dutch/Belgian biscuit. One just uses cinnamon, while the other uses a whole bunch of spices. Speculaas also has cultural significance, unlike speculoos.
- If you want some more information, here's a few different articles explaining them:
- https://www.oonagabilitytriffeliz.com/biscoff-vs-speculaas.html
- https://regulaysewijn.substack.com/p/speculaas-or-speculoos-that-is-the
- https://www.inlaurasbakery.com/speculaas-or-speculoos-whats-the-difference/
- But anyone who's ever had both could tell you that they aren't the same. Please consider reverting this merge, and possibly updating both with correct information. 92.70.192.119 (talk) 14:20, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
- They are similar, and easily confused. The two separate articles contained duplicate material. With the merge we have the history and development of speculoos from speculaas, with details of both biscuits in one place. This is more useful than having two separate articles saying similar things. This provides more information and more clarity in the one place - informing people of the similarities and differences between the two biscuits, including that the two names are currently sometimes used interchangeably for the same biscuit. It is much more helpful to the general reader to have all the information in one place. If you feel that the article as it stands is not clear on the history and development of speculoos and speculaas, you can point it out here, suggest improvements, or edit it yourself. Of course, any editing should not aim to make this a single article on one biscuit, but should retain the intention of informing people about the history and development of both speculoos and speculaas, and retain the speculoos name as the primary focus, as that is the most common name as used in reliable sources. People looking for "speculaas" will be directed to this article. SilkTork (talk) 17:25, 23 August 2025 (UTC)
- The title and a lot of the details in this article are essentially wrong and seem to arise from non-Dutch/Belgians being unfamiliar with speculaas and speculoos and confusion about what those terms mean. I see this problem has been brought up in a previous thread as well. Speculoos and speculaas are distinct products that have a common history. Speculaas is a biscuit made with several spices. Speculoos is a biscuit made with just cinnamon or no spices. Speculoos is what is known in the English speaking world as biscoff. It would make more sense to keep one page for speculaas, detailing the traditional Dutch biscuit made with several spices, and a separate page titled either biscoff as it's known in the English speaking world, or speculoos. The biscoff page could also include all the products such as spreads that are derived from the biscuit. 62.251.69.215 (talk) 22:29, 22 October 2025 (UTC)
- This is the same person again: to SilkTork or anyone who knows how to edit Wikipedia. Please reconsider this merge and having the title as speculoos and please take a look at the Dutch language pages for a good example. This Wikipedia article is having an effect on other English-language information on the internet about speculaas and people copying from this wiki page are now mistaking speculoos for speculaas which was not the case before this confusing and mis-titled page. I think I can explain your finding more mentions of speculoos on the internet because of the popularity of biscoff in the English speaking world. This article is confusing and inaccurate and should, at least, be titled as speculaas and not speculoos (biscoff). 62.251.69.215 (talk) 22:44, 22 October 2025 (UTC)
- Speculoos and speculaas are discussed in this article. Speculoos is the international and most widely known name, so that is the most appropriate title. If you read the article, and look at the sources used, you'll see that there are a variety of modern speculoos recipes, many of them using several spices. This is a useful article to educate a variety of people, including yourself, about speculoos, especially those who believe it to be just the one commercial product. If you put "speculoos recipe" into Google books, you'll find many recipes which include a variety of spices, such as: , , , etc. SilkTork (talk) 16:14, 23 October 2025 (UTC)
- @SilkTork I disagree with the merge. While speculoos and speculaas share historical roots, they have clearly diverged and are regarded as distinct products today. Speculaas is the traditional Dutch spiced biscuit tied to Sinterklaas, while speculoos developed later in Belgium as a caramelised, less spiced variant popularised by Lotus.
- They differ in ingredients, flavour, and cultural identity, and this is reflected in reliable Dutch and French sources. Merging both under speculoos risks erasing these distinctions and confusing readers. Wikipedia has precedent for treating regionally diverged foods separately, such as crêpe and pancake or bagel and bublik. Separate articles with clear cross-references would better reflect these differences. Jhowie_Nitnek (talk) 16:59, 4 November 2025 (UTC)
- Here are some sourches saying they are different things (some are in Dutch)
- - https://kro-ncrv.nl/programmas/keuringsdienst-van-waarde/wat-is-het-verschil-tussen-speculaas-en-speculoos
- - https://www.libelle-lekker.be/artikelen/13410/is-het-nu-speculaas-of-speculoos
- - https://www.laurasbakery.nl/speculaas-of-speculoos-wat-is-het-verschil/
- - https://www.oonagabilitytriffeliz.com/biscoff-vs-speculaas.html
- - https://www.speculaasspice.co.uk/blog/speculaas
- Jhowie_Nitnek (talk) 17:13, 4 November 2025 (UTC)
- Speculoos and speculaas are discussed in this article. Speculoos is the international and most widely known name, so that is the most appropriate title. If you read the article, and look at the sources used, you'll see that there are a variety of modern speculoos recipes, many of them using several spices. This is a useful article to educate a variety of people, including yourself, about speculoos, especially those who believe it to be just the one commercial product. If you put "speculoos recipe" into Google books, you'll find many recipes which include a variety of spices, such as: , , , etc. SilkTork (talk) 16:14, 23 October 2025 (UTC)
- This is the same person again: to SilkTork or anyone who knows how to edit Wikipedia. Please reconsider this merge and having the title as speculoos and please take a look at the Dutch language pages for a good example. This Wikipedia article is having an effect on other English-language information on the internet about speculaas and people copying from this wiki page are now mistaking speculoos for speculaas which was not the case before this confusing and mis-titled page. I think I can explain your finding more mentions of speculoos on the internet because of the popularity of biscoff in the English speaking world. This article is confusing and inaccurate and should, at least, be titled as speculaas and not speculoos (biscoff). 62.251.69.215 (talk) 22:44, 22 October 2025 (UTC)
- The title and a lot of the details in this article are essentially wrong and seem to arise from non-Dutch/Belgians being unfamiliar with speculaas and speculoos and confusion about what those terms mean. I see this problem has been brought up in a previous thread as well. Speculoos and speculaas are distinct products that have a common history. Speculaas is a biscuit made with several spices. Speculoos is a biscuit made with just cinnamon or no spices. Speculoos is what is known in the English speaking world as biscoff. It would make more sense to keep one page for speculaas, detailing the traditional Dutch biscuit made with several spices, and a separate page titled either biscoff as it's known in the English speaking world, or speculoos. The biscoff page could also include all the products such as spreads that are derived from the biscuit. 62.251.69.215 (talk) 22:29, 22 October 2025 (UTC)
- They are similar, and easily confused. The two separate articles contained duplicate material. With the merge we have the history and development of speculoos from speculaas, with details of both biscuits in one place. This is more useful than having two separate articles saying similar things. This provides more information and more clarity in the one place - informing people of the similarities and differences between the two biscuits, including that the two names are currently sometimes used interchangeably for the same biscuit. It is much more helpful to the general reader to have all the information in one place. If you feel that the article as it stands is not clear on the history and development of speculoos and speculaas, you can point it out here, suggest improvements, or edit it yourself. Of course, any editing should not aim to make this a single article on one biscuit, but should retain the intention of informing people about the history and development of both speculoos and speculaas, and retain the speculoos name as the primary focus, as that is the most common name as used in reliable sources. People looking for "speculaas" will be directed to this article. SilkTork (talk) 17:25, 23 August 2025 (UTC)
I appreciate what you are saying, and I have read the links. However, what the our article says, and I checked it out on Google Books, is that biscuits called speculoos may just contain cinnamon, but they may also contain a range of spices. The name speculoos is well known around the world, so that is generally the term used, even when the biscuit contains "speculaas" spices. But I'll take another look. If you have sources outside of the Netherlands, and which are not blogs, it would help. SilkTork (talk) 17:38, 4 November 2025 (UTC)
- @SilkTork I requested the split because the current merge treats speculoos and speculaas as nominal variants, whereas the available evidence indicates that their apparent convergence in English is recent and commercially driven, not the result of long-standing generic usage or linguistic convention.
- In English, speculoos is currently more visible than speculaas, but this visibility emerges only in the 21st century and coincides with commercial exposure such as the cookie-butter trend and marketing of Biscoff, which is also visible in Oxford Dictionary citations, showing that while both terms have long existed in English, speculaas appears earlier as a culturally specific Dutch spiced biscuit, whereas speculoos only becomes widely used without explanation very recently.
- More importantly, the two terms now denote different products. Speculaas is defined by a mixture of spices in which the spice blend is central. Speculoos is defined by caramelisation of sugar (historically beet sugar), sometimes with cinnamon as a secondary note, but without the complex spice mix. This divergence reflects 19th-century industrial and cost constraints in Belgium, where spice-heavy recipes were unsuitable for mass production and caramelisation became the scalable specialisation, unlike in the Netherlands, which had access to cheaper spices through the colonial spice trade.
- This distinction is recognised in practice. The recent rebranding of LU’s Bastogne as “Bastogne speculoos” positions speculoos as a caramelised biscuit category rather than a spiced one, aligning with German usage where Spekulatius denotes the spiced tradition of speculaas and speculoos fall under a different category: karamelgebäck.
- Shared origin does not require a single article. Speculoos developed out of speculaas, so overlap in historical background is expected, but Wikipedia routinely maintains separate articles for foods that diverged in ingredients, production logic, and cultural meaning (cf. doughnut vs. 'oliebol').
- Finally, the merge creates an interlanguage consistency problem. Without a clear distinction, it is unclear how the English article should map to for example Dutch (speculaas) and German (Spekulatius) articles, both of which represent the origin and primary cultural context of speculaas.
- The question, therefore, is not current English visibility, but encyclopedic accuracy and consistency. Given the product divergence, historical development, and interwiki mapping, separate articles with clear cross-references better reflect the subject. Ifonlywe (talk) 16:02, 29 December 2025 (UTC)
- @Ifonlywe Support Jhowie_Nitnek (talk) 19:31, 1 March 2026 (UTC)
- Agreed with @Ifonlywe, the speculoos dominance seems very recent and Belgium indeed not doing justice to the much more complex Dutch speculaas - where are the spices, where are the almonds, where are the traditional windmill or person shapes, and where is the soft - almond spice filled version, where are the chunks - none of these would ever be named speculoos but always speculaas (by the way in Dutch the speculoos name is semantically very telling as LOOS means empty of - so the name itself mirrors the fact that is an cheap rip off of the original empty of flavour and tradition - even if now internationally more successful)?
- Even more telling Lotus bakeries (which has a section of its own in the article) explicitly states these are entirely different cookies https://www.lotusbakeries.be/nl/faq/het-nu-eigenlijk-speculaas-speculoos they literally state: Wij maken bij Lotus Bakeries helemaal geen speculaas. (We at Lotus Bakeries do not make any speculaas at all) Arnoutf (talk) 17:37, 3 April 2026 (UTC)
- Reviewing the above I can not conclude different than that the merge was not a true merge but a reframing putting the spice-free highly commercialised modern version as the dominant one (more of a takeover than a true merge. It resulted in deletion or downplaying of substantial attributes of Speculaas mentioned in the original argument. What this article now describes is not Speculaas. A biscuit with only cinnamon (or even worse caramelised sugar) is simply no speculaas. Another problem is that the almost exclusive focus on a single brand (Lotus) make it read almost as an advertisement for food industry and ignores the fact that the traditional recipes in the Netherlands are produced by many different brands (and store labels) and even local bakeries and even sometimes at home which makes brand dominance and aggressive exporting unlikely (no brand or IP can be protected for centuries old recipes and shapes). These obviously do not have the same marketing power as a large international bakery, but that seems insufficient reason to reduce a century old traditional biscuit to a footnote in its own article. As many others argued, the cookies have diverged and are no longer comparable. So yes we should split it up again. Arnoutf (talk) 07:43, 12 April 2026 (UTC)
- @Arnoutf I agree with most of your points, particularly regarding the imbalance in how the current article presents the subject. I would just like to add that speculoos is not solely an industrial product associated with brands such as Lotus Bakeries, but also a traditional biscuit with a strong presence in Belgian artisanal baking.
- For instance, established bakeries like fr:Maison Dandoy continue to produce speculoos following their own recipes, which highlights that it exists beyond large-scale commercial production. This broader context might be worth reflecting more clearly in the article. Jhowie_Nitnek (talk) 08:06, 12 April 2026 (UTC)
- Thanks @JhowieNitnek. I realise that Speculoos is a longer standing traditional Belgian variant. The main international exposure (the rationale for merger) seems to be very much related to the industrial Lotus biscuits (and uniquely Lotus speculoos spread). I agree even after a split due account should be paid to the richter tradition of the Belgian variant. Arnoutf (talk) 15:15, 12 April 2026 (UTC)
- Reviewing the above I can not conclude different than that the merge was not a true merge but a reframing putting the spice-free highly commercialised modern version as the dominant one (more of a takeover than a true merge. It resulted in deletion or downplaying of substantial attributes of Speculaas mentioned in the original argument. What this article now describes is not Speculaas. A biscuit with only cinnamon (or even worse caramelised sugar) is simply no speculaas. Another problem is that the almost exclusive focus on a single brand (Lotus) make it read almost as an advertisement for food industry and ignores the fact that the traditional recipes in the Netherlands are produced by many different brands (and store labels) and even local bakeries and even sometimes at home which makes brand dominance and aggressive exporting unlikely (no brand or IP can be protected for centuries old recipes and shapes). These obviously do not have the same marketing power as a large international bakery, but that seems insufficient reason to reduce a century old traditional biscuit to a footnote in its own article. As many others argued, the cookies have diverged and are no longer comparable. So yes we should split it up again. Arnoutf (talk) 07:43, 12 April 2026 (UTC)
- @Ifonlywe Support Jhowie_Nitnek (talk) 19:31, 1 March 2026 (UTC)