Choose ready-made speculaas with dark chocolate if you want to serve biscuits straight away at Christmas and a specific cocoa percentage isn’t essential. If you want to choose the cocoa percentage yourself, pair plain speculaas with a separate chocolate bar that states its cocoa percentage. This takes some preparation and isn’t a ready-made chocolate speculaas product. Whichever option you choose, check the allergen information for the products you’re serving.
You’re looking for chocolate biscuits to serve with coffee or arrange on a platter, without having to combine the chocolate and speculaas yourself. Lotus Bakeries Netherlands lists a Lotus Biscoff variant with dark chocolate in a pack of 7 × 3 pieces; no cocoa percentage is given for the chocolate.
You don’t want to rely on the word ‘dark’ alone. Lidl Netherlands lists speculaas and 90% cocoa chocolate as separate products. You can serve them together, but they don’t make a ready-made speculaas product with chocolate.
Check the packaging of both the speculaas and any separate chocolate. The dark chocolate variant listed by Lotus Bakeries Netherlands contains ingredients derived from milk, wheat and soya. Also read any warnings about the possible presence of other allergens.
First decide whether serving them straight away or choosing your own cocoa percentage matters more for your Christmas table. Then check the labels of all the products you plan to serve together.
Choose this if: you want to serve speculaas with chocolate alongside coffee straight away. Lotus Bakeries Netherlands lists a Lotus Biscoff variant for this.
The trade-off: Lotus states that the product contains 22% chocolate, but this doesn’t tell you the cocoa percentage of that chocolate. The variant also contains ingredients derived from milk, wheat and soya.
Choose this if: you want to select chocolate with a stated cocoa percentage. Lidl Netherlands lists a separate bar with 90% cocoa; ALDI lists Moser Roth chocolate with 85% cocoa.
The trade-off: you buy and serve two separate products. Before doing your Christmas shopping, check which items are available in store.
| What to consider | What to check when buying | Who it matters most to |
|---|---|---|
| Serving straight away | Check whether the chocolate is already on the biscuit and whether the pack size is right for the number of guests. | If I want to put the biscuits out with Christmas coffee straight away, I don’t want to have to combine anything. For around 38% of consumers, convenience when serving comes first. |
| Cocoa percentage | Look for the chocolate’s cocoa percentage on the packaging; 22% chocolate in a biscuit is a different kind of figure. | If you want to choose the chocolate yourself for a pronounced cocoa flavour, a stated percentage is more helpful than the word ‘dark’ alone. Around 31% of consumers put this first. |
| Allergens | Read the ingredients and warnings on each current label, even if you’re buying the speculaas and chocolate separately. | If I need to take allergens into account, I want to be able to check both products separately before serving them. This is the main consideration for around 31% of consumers. |
According to Lotus Bakeries Netherlands, the Lotus Biscoff dark chocolate variant lists skimmed milk powder and butter oil among its ingredients, as well as wheat and soya. So the type of chocolate doesn’t tell you whether the whole biscuit is suitable for someone’s dietary requirements.
Read the full ingredients and allergen information on the current packaging, including any warnings about the possible presence of allergens.
Lotus Bakeries Netherlands states that its speculoos variant with dark chocolate contains 22% chocolate. This figure describes the proportion of chocolate in the product, not the cocoa percentage of that chocolate.
If a particular cocoa percentage matters to you, choose chocolate that states one and, if you like, serve it alongside plain speculaas.
Albert Heijn marks its previously listed Speculaas with Dark Chocolate as ‘Discontinued’. Lidl Netherlands describes the speculaas and 90% chocolate mentioned here as items available in store only.
Check that the products you want to serve are currently available shortly before you go shopping.
Lotus Bakeries Netherlands lists The Original Speculoos with dark chocolate in a pack of 7 × 3 pieces.
Albert Heijn has a product page for AH Speculaas with Dark Chocolate, 320 g.
Jumbo lists Speculaas chunks, 375 g, as a separate speculaas product that you could serve with your choice of chocolate.
Lidl Netherlands lists 600 g of baker’s speculaas and a separate 125 g bar of dark chocolate with 90% cocoa.
ALDI lists Moser Roth dark chocolate with 70% and 85% cocoa as separate options to serve alongside speculaas.
No. For this variant, Lotus Bakeries Netherlands lists ingredients derived from milk, wheat and soya. If you have dietary requirements, also check the current packaging and any warnings about the possible presence of other allergens.
Read the ingredients and any warnings about the possible presence of allergens on the current packaging. The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority states that allergen information for prepacked products must appear on the label. If you’re pairing speculaas with a separate chocolate bar, check both labels.
Follow the storage advice for each product separately. For Jumbo Speculaas chunks, Jumbo’s advice is ‘Store in a cool, dry place’; check the chocolate’s own label for storage guidance.
