Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter Review

Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter. SpecuWhat? What in the world? Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter?!?! I thought Trader Joe’s had a misspelled label when I first saw this. I’ve traveled and eaten all over the world, but I don’t remember anything called “speculoos”. So I did what any modern human does… I turned to Google and searched the word “Speculoos” to find out what the fuss was about. Oh boy, did I hit a gold mine!

What is Speculoos? Speculoos are a traditional cookie that is made around the holiday season in Holland, Belgium, and northern France. They have all the traditional holiday spices, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Trader Joe’s, has in the past, carried the real cookie version of this spread. They are usually in the freezer section on shelves above the frozen food.

So how did speculoos make their way into a spread? A couple of years ago some genius decided that having cookies wasn’t enough, how about we grind them up (or actually never make it to cookie stage) and make a butter-like spread out of them? I guess if you add enough oil or butter to something it will thicken up into a spread. What a real genius!

In this case, this hits the nail on the head. It has the consistency of peanut butter and you could be mistaken to think it has nuts in it by looking at it, but there are none! It’s basically cookie dough in a spreadable form.

What Do You Do With Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter?

So what do you do with Speculoos? I’m sure you could bake with it. Maybe put it into a pie or bread or something else. Put it back in cookies. Make a milkshake out of it. The uses are endless. I think the main intent is to use it as a spread on toast and maybe something like sandwiches instead of peanut butter.

First I tasted it straight out of the jar and found it quite interesting. The flavors had a mild mixture of the familiar holiday spices we are accustomed to. Consistency is just like creamy peanut butter. No spice sticks out on the palate, but you can tell they are all nicely blended together.

Next I put it on hot toast and it melted like peanut butter would into a gooey rich mess on my toast. That’s when all the flavors woke up and came alive. It was totally pleasing. I gave some to my older son and he loved it! On the label, it says it’s a product of the Netherlands so I can only assume it’s authentic. For all you Dutch people out there having a hard time getting your Speculoos fix, run to Trader Joe’s!

My Final Thoughts on Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter

As much as I think this tastes awesome, there is nothing healthy about Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter. It’s essentially fat and sugar with some spices thrown in for flavor. At least with peanut butter, there are some redeeming qualities. This is about 30% sugar and each tablespoon has 90 calories, which is similar to peanut butter but again nowhere near as healthy. But sometimes you just have to stick a spoon in and go for it because it tastes so good!

I’m going to rate this Speculoos  8 Bells!

Ingredients