Delta’s Biscoff cookies were supposed to be temporary (seriouseats.com)

151 pointsby mhb2 days ago131 comments

SoftTalker 6 hours ago

> a peanut shortage prompted Delta, then America’s fourth-largest airline, to seek an alternative onboard snack

I never knew this was the reason. I had assumed that airlines stopped serving peanuts as an accomodation to the increasing number of people with peanut allergies.

SOLAR_FIELDS 4 hours ago

It's both. That's why Southwest stopped, for instance. Literally just opening a small bag of peanuts around people who aren't eating peanuts is enough to bring someone with a severe allergy into anaphylactic shock.

coryrc 4 hours ago

That is not true:

https://www.aaaai.org/allergist-resources/ask-the-expert/ans...

SOLAR_FIELDS 4 hours ago

Interesting, thanks for sharing. Homework shows you are right.

rtkwe 4 hours ago

The American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology disagrees, which I'm surprised by and totally thought they could too. Someone linked to this in another thread.

> What can occur is that the patient smells an allergen, and that smell triggers a strong memory of a past reaction or the fear of having a reaction and signs and symptoms of panic may occur – including an increase in heart rate, tight breathing, flushing of the skin and nervousness, all of which could be mistaken as signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis. ... While smells can linger in the air, the allergen proteins do not, which is why smelling a food will not trigger anaphylaxis.

Interestingly some allergens like those in shellfish /can/ aerosolize in a boiling pot, however according to them peanuts cannot. I can still absolutely see airlines reacting to passengers thinking they're having attacks and eliminating peanut snacks out of caution and to avoid the issues even an imagined attack can cause on a flight. That and the risk of surface contamination probably?

https://www.aaaai.org/tools-for-the-public/conditions-librar...

edit: dang scooped by 5 minutes.

Den_VR 4 hours ago

I think the key part is the _boiling pot_.

rtkwe 4 hours ago

Yeah that's definitely the issue with the shellfish. I'm just more surprised the allergen is sufficiently different from the smell that they are disconnected in peanuts.

Den_VR 3 hours ago

I suspect that peanut boiling in a pot would also be problematic. The oil and water vapor and would provide a carrier.

rtkwe 3 hours ago

I also suspect there's not much reason to boil peanuts in water outside of the very specific (and delicious) snack called boiled peanuts. I can't really think of any other dish that uses them as a normal ingredient. Most of the time you'd toast them in oil for dishes or use peanut oil afaik.

felixg3 3 hours ago

In Indian Cuisine, peanuts are sometimes boiled, and are indeed delicious

matwood 41 minutes ago

Boiled peanuts are staples at baseball games in the south. They are so good.

CrazyStat 17 minutes ago

Molecules responsible for smells tend to be small, on the order of 100-300 Daltons—otherwise they aren’t able to diffuse easily in the air.

The vast majority of allergens, on the other hand, are proteins, with the very smallest proteins being on the order of 1 kiloDalton. Large proteins get up into hundreds to thousands of kDa.

aksss 4 hours ago

Yes, the panic attack thing is pretty real. Know someone that had a severe allergic reaction, basically started choking to death, paramedics involved, all that. The experience imprinted itself deeply, such that she's deathly afraid of it happening again, and gets triggered with panic attacks. She's like two years on from the experience and through a lot of work she's much better, but it's pretty crazy how broadly it has impacted her life as an anxiety disorder. She knows it's not logical, but describes it as a fear of death and of a spiraling nature such that if she can't arrest it in the moment it compounds very badly, which reinforces the phenomenon - panicking about panicking. Anxiety over a panic reaction. So to be clear, it's not an allergic reaction she's experiencing but trauma from one in the past.

doubled112 3 hours ago

When I told my doctor about my oldest having a reaction to a chocolate bar with peanuts, one of his first questions was "did he react before he knew it had peanuts?"

He's pretty anxious about food in general, so it actually made a lot of sense.

jimbokun 3 hours ago

Yeah, if I almost died from something I imagine I would have the same response.

estearum 2 hours ago

I'm not sure it's fair to describe that fear response as "not logical."

b112 41 minutes ago

It's not logically thought out, emotion is a parallel decision making process to logical thought. It may be that in some circumstances, fear is a logical outcome of a stimulus, but that's not the same thing.

b112 39 minutes ago

Yes. In fact, last time I checked (4 years ago), no one has ever had a reaction from (for example) kissing someone who just ate peanut butter too, which for a while everyone claimed could case a reaction. There was a reported case 12+ years ago in Montreal, but it was soon retracted as a mistake.

MaintenanceMode 3 hours ago

I took a flight inside Mexico (Mexico City to Oaxaca) recently and the in-flight service snack was bagged peanuts. I was so amused, it was almost shocking to see. And, good news, no one died, but I assume if it was on a plane in US there probably would've been a strong emotional reaction by at least one person. It's good to know that the "Airborne anaphylaxis" is not a thing.

cpursley 2 hours ago

Many nations are finally pushing back on Americanism and finding themselves again.

jcims 2 hours ago

My buddy's gf is allergic to peas.

She visited a friend's house and started getting an itchy throat immediately. Friends knew of her allergy and obviously hadn't prepared any.

Turned out the dog food had peas in it and the bag was open on the other end of the house in the kitchen. (And a supporting role from whatever the dog had slobbered on in the living room)

Sometimes it blows me away how sensitive our bodies can be.

adzm 5 hours ago

Have you heard of Biscoff spread? It's kinda like peanut butter except, it's made out of cookies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BZsIY6PUPU (might not be sfw)

jldugger 5 hours ago

Yea, I once brought some to game night, and another gamer brought actual Biscoff cookies. Then a third person put them together into a sandwich cookie which I thought was equal parts funny and violating some kind of Kosher rule "Do not seethe a kid in it's mother's milk" I invented in my head.

Waterluvian 4 hours ago

We’ve strayed further. Sometimes we take the meat of a chicken, bathe it in its eggs, dip it in bread crumb, and shape it in the form of its ancestors.

Dino nuggies are worth it though…

jimbokun 3 hours ago

Getting close to oyakodon:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyakodon

mrguyorama 38 minutes ago

And don't forget the mayochip to dip it in!

My friends and I stumbled into this as it's own food category and I wish I could remember the stranger ones.

generallee5686 4 hours ago

I think you can actually buy biscoff sandwich cookies that are essentially this.

Cu3PO42 4 hours ago

You can! And they're delicious.

Waterluvian 4 hours ago

Wife got the same thing but it’s Oreo cookie spread. The stuff is crack.

FLeXMurphy 3 hours ago

This is usually the first thing I think of when I think of f**InG BiScoFf.

danparsonson 17 minutes ago

Wow you must really like them

burnte 3 hours ago

ChocZero makes a zero sugar version of the speculoos cookie butter and it's amazing.

pinkmuffinere 3 hours ago

lol how could this not be sfw??? I can't open right now because I'm at work but I'm so curious haha

zarzavat 2 hours ago

Anything is possible on the Internet.

munificent 2 hours ago

You can spread it on anything. ANYTHING.

cinntaile 2 hours ago

Slightly related but you can crumble these cookies and use them as a (cheese)cake bottom. It's nice.

spyspy 2 hours ago

If you care about your health at all, do NOT buy a jar of trader joe's cookie butter, or their cookie butter ice cream...

AntiqueFig an hour ago

I use that often as a filling for snickerdoodles, it's quite good.

microsoftedging an hour ago

Oh my

tiahura an hour ago

Yes because I read the article.

jmpman 5 hours ago

I'd read that there are a few snack items resistant to GLP-1 induced food aversions, when I was on a GLP-1, Biscoff cookies felt like one of them. I may have an Amazon scheduled delivery of Biscoff, which every month, I intend to cancel, and somehow forget to follow through.

tombert 5 hours ago

I'm not on GLP-1s, but I am on metformin [1] which my wife says has similar food aversion properties to the GLPs, and for me I've noticed virtually anything with peanut butter I can still eat a nearly infinite quantity of. One of the worst things that has ever happened to me was finding out that peanut butter fudge is ridiculously easy to make.

[1] Off label for weight loss. My insurance wouldn't cover GLP-1s, and metformin is out of patent and super cheap, and I read that at least some people have had good success using it for weight loss. I am fortunately one of those happy few.

collinstevens 4 hours ago

please delete your comments, this is an infohazard for us on glp-1s

tombert 4 hours ago

I shouldn't have to suffer through this alone.

criddell 4 hours ago

How cheap is super cheap? Semaglutide is something like $70 a month now from some online sellers.

tombert 3 hours ago

Three month supply of metformin is on the order of ~$17 from Amazon pharmacy, without insurance, though obviously depends on the dosage: https://pharmacy.amazon.com/METFORMIN-850-MG-TAB/dp/B0842996...

cyberpunk 4 hours ago

One extreme option if you wanna kick the ‘butter — I ate a small amount of peanut butter immediately before a severe case of norovirus kicked in (48 hours of purge every 15-20 minutes) — can’t even be in the same room with the stuff without flashbacks anymore. Even typing that out made feel rough.

Maybe there’s some way to de-program such strong associations but seems like a way to kick a bad habit..

tombert 3 hours ago

I have the same reaction to strawberry ice cream. Not actual strawberries, those are still good, but the flavor that candy companies think strawberries taste like.

I got very sick fairly shortly after eating a bunch of strawberry ice cream when I was a kid. 25 years later and I still can't stand the stuff.

darksim905 3 hours ago

When we say food 'aversion', we're implying that a drug like metformin makes you not want that thing, yes?

I've found when I take metformin, and then eat food later, I enjoy the food so much more as a craving/satiation thing. Especially steaks. But I'm not quite sure why that is. I can't say that what peers have told me about metformin is to help with weight loss, but supposedly the benefits/effects on the body are generally positive.

tombert 3 hours ago

In my case metformin makes it so I just have no appetite, and certain foods are outright kind of revolting to me now. I can't do fried chicken while I'm on it.

paulpauper 13 minutes ago

Biscoff is so filling, imho. like eating chalk. i cannot imagine eating more than a few, versus Reece's which I can eat dozen at once.

mattgoupil an hour ago

I first ran into speculoos in the south of France where they ground up and in all sorts of things, especially cheesecake crust. All of a sudden I saw "speculoos" every where. How it jumped from Belgium to Nice escapes me.

c0rruptbytes 6 hours ago

Claire Saffitz makes cinnamon rolls with these cookies as the inner cinnamon filling, they’re so good with the spice

satiated_grue 4 hours ago

They make a great graham-cracker style crust for a skyr cake.

sasaf5 6 hours ago

Please, make sure you try these at least once in your life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculoos

thenthenthen 4 hours ago

As well as ‘taaitaai’, the chewy variety ( https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taaitaai )

Dries007 6 hours ago

As a Belgian I still dislike this new branding.

tunk 5 hours ago

Same.

Insanity 5 hours ago

It is at least easier to pronounce for non-Dutch speakers. Here in Toronto, there are a few places that put "Speculaas/Speculoos (Biscoff)" on their menu, e.g: https://www.columbuscafe.com/en/recette/cafe-latte-de-lours-....

But to be honest, as a Belgian living abroad, I'm just happy I can find it at all lol. Was surprised to even find the 'crunchy' spread in my local supermarket.

isqueiros 3 hours ago

Huh. That would actually annoy me because speculaas and speculoos are two different things.

throw7 5 hours ago

If it's any help, the company denies that Delta came up with the name, but doesn't offer an explanation to the origin of the name itself.

It's also funny how they deny that the original deal with Delta was only a temporary short term deal, but that it was always a longterm deal.

Exoristos 5 hours ago

Soon after these became ubiquitous in grocery stores, the manufacturer stopped using butter. I don't buy them anymore.

geodel 4 hours ago

Wow. Seems people do love it. My thought was always there could be no cheaper or worse snack that airlines can offer

temp_praneshp 4 hours ago

I moved to America in July 2011, first delta flight in August that year, and have pretty much not bought any other cookie since.

When I was young and shameless back then I would even ask for an extra one! My wife hates the cookie though, so probably in your boat

gnarcoregrizz 4 hours ago

same. biscoff is loathsome

thenthenthen 4 hours ago

Grinding them up as bottom for cheesecake is heaven!

AntiqueFig an hour ago

Or as a lemon pie crust it's awesome as well!

sv123 an hour ago

Yeah I'm so confused in the comments, these things suck.

paulpauper 12 minutes ago

like eating chalk. never understood the hype about it

rootusrootus 6 hours ago

Once in a while we pick up a pack of these from Costco, when we haven't flown in a while. They're pretty sweet, so we don't get them too often, but once in a while as a treat.

jimbokun 3 hours ago

> They're pretty sweet, so we don't get them too often, but once in a while as a treat.

Then a Costco pack should be close to a lifetime supply.

rootusrootus 2 hours ago

I have two teenagers.

johnnyApplePRNG 5 hours ago

Title makes it sound like Biscoff was created by an airline or something...

The bakery has been around since 1932, FYI.

eddieroger 4 hours ago

The "then passengers fell in love" portion was enough context (for me, at least) to know we were about to read about Delta Airlines, the first place I've had Biscoff cookies, and other than when I get them at Costco, the only place I eat them.

HumblyTossed 6 hours ago

Too sweet. Much would rather p-nuts.

dieselgate 6 hours ago

Are there allergy concerns with nuts?

lotsofpulp 6 hours ago

https://www.aaaai.org/tools-for-the-public/conditions-librar...

>Myth: Smelling an allergen can trigger anaphylaxis.

>Fact: While people often don’t like the smell of a food they’re allergic to, smell does not provoke an allergic reaction...While smells can linger in the air, the allergen proteins do not, which is why smelling a food will not trigger anaphylaxis.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33548082/

>Allergic reactions to airborne peanut proteins are rare and cannot be predicted by high levels of IgE-antibodies to peanut or Ara h 2. Only small amounts of biologically active peanut proteins were detected in the air and seem unlikely to trigger moderate/severe allergic reactions.

dieselgate 5 hours ago

Cross-contamination risk via surfaces and touch might still remain in such tight spaces. Thanks for the articles about olfactory risks!

stevesimmons 5 hours ago

I have severe peanut allergy. If I have any exposure, my immune system stays hypersensitised for several weeks. During that period, even the smell of peanuts is enough for my throat to start swelling up. It won't develop into the full anaphylactic reaction but it is certainly bad enough to make me very unhappy.

sbennettmcleish 5 hours ago

One of my sons is allergic to peanuts (and a lot more, like dairy alas) ... but Biscoff is a saviour for a little treat! And Biscoff spread is glorious, better than peanut butter IMO

skyyler 4 hours ago

Biscoff spread is a nice treat but peanut butter is much higher in protein, lower in carbs, and is mostly unsaturated fats compared to Biscoff spread which is mostly saturated fats.

Compared to natural peanut butter anyways. Compared to something like Jif though, that difference is probably minimal.

HumblyTossed 5 hours ago

I don't have a nut allergy.

garbawarb 5 hours ago

Same. All these snacks have added sugar or oils, I'd rather have something simple.

programmertote 4 hours ago

Came here to say this. I thought I liked them when I was given just one packet on the airplane. So I bought them at Costco when I saw them there. It's been like two months since I bought it and I barely finished a third of that because it's too sweet.

alexjplant 4 hours ago

They're also very chocolate-deficient and therefore not worth my time. Life is too short for anything vanilla, shortbread, or sugar cookie adjacent (which I recall Biscoff to be).

I understand that this is a blazing hot culinary take and might be the most controversial thing I've written on HN. Before downvoting please consider that this isn't elitism or opinion - everybody the world over deserves the joy of flavor in their confections instead of cloying bland sweetness. Embrace variety and live your life. Throw your Biscoff in the trash and buy some Tim Tams or Thin Mints.

urbandw311er an hour ago

This article is kind of one-sided – it consistently makes claims and then has to admit, in brackets, that Lotus disputes them.

fotta 4 hours ago

I have been known to inhale entire costco sized sleeves of biscoffs

I don't look at the nutrition facts

ErroneousBosh 3 hours ago

Turns out just anyone can call themselves a nutritionist, according to Dr Ben Goldacre, but "dietician" is something you actually have to be qualified for.

So, you can call yourself a nutritionist, run a blog about it, write a book about it, anything really, and tell anyone any kind of bullshit you make up.

I think I'm on pretty solid ground with mine though.

> I have been known to inhale entire costco sized sleeves of biscoffs > I don't look at the nutrition facts

Here's the title:

"What You're Eating Is Probably Pretty Much Fine"

The strapline is "maybe just not so much, and don't do it all the time"

epcoa 3 hours ago

You mean dietitian.

This is meant to be good natured pedantry, but look it up, you may find it interesting.

ErroneousBosh 2 hours ago

Yup, typo on my part. End of a long day :-)

voooduuuuu 2 hours ago

Just like login session cookies.

CodeWriter23 3 hours ago

In-flight internet sucks? Have a cookie.

HoldOnAMinute 2 hours ago

They are temporary. They have a way of disappearing into my belly.

el_don_almighty 6 hours ago

I love these cookies

malfist 6 hours ago

Me too. Have you seen that Kodiak is now making "cookie butter" protein granola? Cookie butter is the US naming of speculoos and they're amazing. Love that stuff. Tried making my own to improve the macros more, but haven't nailed it yet.

jolt42 5 hours ago

I do too, but realized i like ginger snaps, at least some varieties at least as well if not better.

_doctor_love 5 hours ago

Dunking these in coffee is super clutch

Telemakhos 5 hours ago

Or hot tea. Along the same lines too, try the ultra-flat and crisp and dunkable Moravian cookies (specifically the spice or ginger flavors) or ginger-flavored Swedish thins.

jasperry 3 hours ago

That also helps reduce the crumb issues. Though I do prefer the stroopwafels served by another major US airline.

burningChrome 5 hours ago

And now with their popularity, they're almost everywhere now. Mcdonald's, Krispy Kreme, Cinnabon, Auntie Anne's have all had Biscoff partnered products.

Kind of cool to the explosion of popularity and them taking advantage and partnering with other brands to expand their markets.

sammycdubs 4 hours ago

#1 reason to fly delta tbh

baggachipz 3 hours ago

American serves them too.

smcin 2 hours ago

Only since more recently (2026?) I believe.

baggachipz 39 minutes ago

Oh no, it's been years. At least the last 10 or so. They usually have either cookies or pretzels, but usually both and if you ask nicely they'll give you the cookies. Two if you look emaciated.

t1234s 5 hours ago

pairs well with a coffee but with a gin and tonic pretzels are the way to go.

thaumasiotes 3 hours ago

In Hong Kong I've seen a gourmet cheesecake shop selling "Lotus Biscoff" flavored cheesecake, and supermarkets selling Biscoff butter (basically Nutella, but with Biscoff flavoring instead of chocolate).

I know the cookie mainly for being sold at Costco. I had no idea they were given out on flights.

The biggest question I've always had about them was whether the "Lotus" in their name is the same brand as the Chinese supermarket chain Lotus. I think it isn't?

peter_d_sherman 3 hours ago

>"But until 1986, when Delta Air Lines began serving them as a temporary replacement for peanuts, the cookie—typically something enjoyed with a cup of coffee in a Belgian café—was practically unknown in the US. Today, Biscoff is a global phenomenon, with its manufacturer Lotus Bakeries touting it as the world’s fifth-bestselling cookie."

How do you make your unknown product known?

You put it in front of as many people as you can!

In the above case, cookies in front of airline-passengers seemed to be the winning business formula, but this is only one example of a product meeting a market at a specific interface/connection point, with the Delta customers' drop-down in-flight tray tables being that "connection point".

In the study of business, this is one example (or subcase) of that much broader pattern...

Still, it's a pretty cool example! :-)

MC995 6 hours ago

Honestly that's one of the few things I look forward to when flying these days, and a serious consideration on picking Delta if other factors are equal between airlines.

drcongo 6 hours ago

You can just buy some from a shop.

MC995 6 hours ago

I do, sometimes. But when I can always get them it's less of a "treat".

There are a few things I only get intentionally when traveling for work so it's something to look forward to and brings something positive to the trip.

tigen 6 hours ago

Anticipating it nervously as the attendant distributes them down the aisle and then receiving it for free makes it taste better.

tekla 6 hours ago

Like half the article is about why these cookies are popular in flight

em3rgent0rdr 6 hours ago

Sure, there are a lot of things like this you can do. It would eat up a minute of your time and cost a premium to buy a tiny packet of an individually-wrapped biscoff. Or you could spend ~$36 to buy a box of 300 biscoffs that occupy a space in your cupboard, and then every time you fly, you take one out of the box and put it in your carry-on, and resist the temptation to eat it unless you are 10km high.

xattt 6 hours ago

Keep the box, set a chair in the middle of the living room, strap on a VR headset (viewer’s choice) and put on an airline passenger POV video from YouTube. Crunch away at your Biscoff.

You’re welcome. You just saved thousands of dollars.

Liuser 5 hours ago

Tomato juice is also disproportionately popular during flights compared to what one would normally order grounded. You can also buy tomato v8 juice from a shop, but there’s a reason taste changes when you’re flying, which they explain in the article.