Have you ever had Speculoos paste? It is a delicious and rich spread
made from carmelised biscuits and spiced with cinnamon that has been consumed
in Belgium for at least a century. Speculoos has been particularly popular in the northern
Dutch speaking part of the country for many years.
Traditionally, Speculoos paste has been produced in small batches by local
bakers, but large companies have stepped in in recent years and produced
Speculoos on a larger scale, leading to something of a controversy.
In 2007, a woman won a “Dragon’s Den”-like TV reality show
with her recipe for Speculoos spread. It
beat out one of the other competitors on the program who were also promoting a version
of Speculoos paste. A Belgian bakery
company went into business with the winner and started selling their Speculoos
paste to great publicity.
This led to several other companies starting large-scale production
and the original company filing a lawsuit claiming a patent and that they had
exclusive rights to sell the product.
This led to another court case in Ghent, which ended in the nullifying
of the patent on the basis that food cannot be patented.
With the publicity from television and the ensuing court cases,
Speculoos paste’s popularity and sales have skyrocketed in recent years. Indeed, one of the companies has plans to
launch the product in the United States as an allergy-free alternative to peanut butter.
We sell Speculoos paste made by Jules Destrooper, a traditional
biscuit maker with a long history making carmelised biscuits. Try some Belgian Speculoos for yourself and find out what all the
fuss is about!
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