12 Cookie Butters, Ranked Worst To Best

If you've ever been served cookies on a flight, there's a good chance they were in a little red and white package emblazoned with the Lotus Biscoff logo. Though famous for its speculoos cookies, Lotus Bakeries has also been largely responsible for popularizing cookie butter (made from combining ground speculoos cookies with a few additional ingredients, including oils, sugars, and spices). However, the bakery can't lay claim to having come up with the mouthwatering speculoos flavor. In fact, Lotus Bakeries was only founded in 1932, and yet, speculoos cookies have a fascinating history dating all the way back to the 17th century.

That's why I decided it was worthwhile to compare cookie butters from different brands — both European and American. In this review, I examined crunchy and creamy cookie butters (I'm equally partial to both). I also tested health-oriented cookie butters and a cocoa cookie butter. I ranked these products according to factors like flavor, texture, and mouthfeel. You can learn more about my methodology at the end of this article.

There are myriad ways to use cookie butter, and now that I have a dozen jars of it in my pantry, I'll surely be experimenting with adding it to everything from coffee to oatmeal. You, too, might find that cookie butter becomes the secret ingredient to many of your favorite recipes. But you have to choose the right one.

Is it worth shelling out more money for the Finally Cookie Butter Nut Free Spread, given that most products on this list are already nut-free? Unless you absolutely need to ensure that your cookie butter is free of the top nine allergens and produced in an allergen-friendly facility, I'd say not.

Have you ever tasted hummus? Or spread it onto a wrap? That will give you a sense of the flavor and texture of this product. The chickpeas were overwhelmingly apparent in this cookie butter's appearance, texture, and flavor, earning it last place in this ranking.

As a fan of chocolate hummus, I admit that I had hopes for this product. In addition to chickpeas, this cookie butter contains a few types of sugar, natural flavors, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon. I thought that the ginger, which wasn't present in the other products I tested, could have added a lovely warmth to this cookie butter, but it was a missed opportunity. In fact, none of the supporting ingredients were bold enough to stand out against the chickpeas. It hardly tasted like cookie butter.

The one good thing I can say about this product is that it was slightly less sweet than the other cookie butters I tasted. And if it matters to you, there's even a bit more protein in it, too.

I've enjoyed products with monk fruit extract before, and I even had a bottle of it in my pantry. But ChocZero Crunchy Speculoos Cookie Spread uses so much of it that I could hardly go back for a second tasting. My mouth was working overtime to produce the saliva needed to process this cookie butter — a phenomenon that others have noticed with monk fruit extract, too.

But that wasn't all I disliked about this product. The brand's recipe for speculoos cookies was clearly not aligned with the Belgian recipes most of us are familiar with. Rather than wheat flour, rice and oat flours are featured in this product. Their unconventional flavors were made even more apparent because this was the brand's crunchy variation. Every time I bit into a cookie crumble, I cringed.

Finally, though their size and granulation were acceptable, there simply weren't enough crumbles in this crunchy cookie butter. Then again, having more of that disconcerting cookie flavor may not have been a good thing. The consistency of the creamy spread in which they rested, though, was slightly above average, ensuring this product didn't end up in last place.

The smooth ChocZero Butter Cookie Speculoos Spread only scored higher than its crunchy counterpart because its unorthodox flavors were slightly less overt. Still, I wouldn't recommend buying it unless you are on a very strict diet. Monk fruit extract replaces added sugar, enabling this cookie butter to remain sweet without being quite as dessert-like as the others. Perhaps a better way to regulate the sugar content is to make it at home, loosely following a reliable speculoos cookie butter recipe.

ChocZero's smooth cookie butter flavor was less akin to speculoos cookies and more like chocolate almond flour cookies. After peeking at the ingredients list, I understood why: Cocoa powder and almond flour are both key ingredients. And while that flavor profile isn't necessarily terrible, it's also not what I expected when I was buying cookie butter.

The texture of this cookie butter was its one saving grace. It was drippy, which I would have loved when decorating food in my smoothie bowl era, and it wasn't as oily as some of the other products. Lastly, it contains coconut flour, egg, almond flour, and whole milk powder, so you may need to stay away if you can't consume any of these allergens.

The previous ChocZero spread may have had obvious hints of cocoa, but Great Value Speculoos Cookie Butter & Cocoa Spread makes cocoa powder a star ingredient. In addition to the usual oils, lecithins, and cinnamon, this product contains several other ingredients, such as dry milk, sweet whey powder, vanilla flavor, and hazelnuts. 

As a result, this spread contains only 25% ground speculoos cookies, a relatively low amount. For comparison, Sprouts' version (which I'll describe later) contains 61% speculoos cookies. Naturally, I missed the strong presence of warm spices that I associate with cookie butter in this product.

I like chocolate, and I'm not so much of a cookie butter purist that I'd dismiss this product immediately. Indeed, speculoos and chocolate have been combined on many occasions to great effect — for instance, in Lotus Biscoff Milk Chocolate Sandwich Cookies. Unfortunately, though, the cocoa flavor swirled into this Great Value product reminded me of cheap chocolate ice cream.

The sweetness level of this product didn't help much, either. I've lived in Europe and eaten many speculoos and speculoos-adjacent cookies there. They tend to be less sweet than their American cousins. Suffice it to say that the cookie butter component of this product reminded me more of an American cookie than a European one.

The texture of Great Value Creamy Speculoos Cookie Butter Spread helped it earn an average ranking in this review. Even some of the higher-ranking products couldn't compete with the creamy texture of this cookie butter. It didn't leave a ridiculous coating of oil on the roof of my mouth, either.

Nevertheless, it's sweet. Not just sweet, but very sweet. Sweeter than most of the other cookie butters I tested. That detracted from any outstanding characteristics the cinnamon could have added, or even the natural flavors. Like its cocoa-swirled sibling, this cookie butter failed to remind me of Christmas in Europe.

Given the great value of this Great Value product, this cookie butter might still be an excellent addition to a variety of baked goods. You could, for instance, give boxed waffle mix a makeover by melting this cookie butter. I'd stay away from letting it fly solo, though; there are higher quality cookie butters better for spreading on toast and drizzling over ice cream.

In terms of ingredients, the Private Selection Crunchy Cookie Butter looked promising from the outset. It consists of speculoos cookies spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, combined with sugar, vegetable oils, sunflower lecithin (an emulsifier), and citric acid. 

This is the first product I'd say is worth a repeat buy. It doesn't contain any unfamiliar sweeteners, and it's not repulsively sweet. It's versatile enough to star in a wide variety of recipes, and its flavor did not disappoint. Though the nutmeg could have been stronger (a notable strength of an upcoming product), the cinnamon paired wonderfully with the wheat flour-based cookies. And while the texture of this spread was marginally oily, that's not any different from the average cookie butter.

Nevertheless, this product couldn't break into the top five spots because its crunchy cookie crumbles weren't ground finely enough. Instead, they were sharp and oversized, and reminded me of crystallized honey. I felt a bit like my mouth was under attack.

The jar of Roland Speculoos Cookie Butter Spread I bought off Amazon was one of the priciest products in this review. For the most part, there wasn't much special about its ingredients list; the usual suspects of ground speculoos cookies, vegetable oils, and sugar were all present. Soy flour, however, was also in the lineup, which I initially assumed was used to thicken the cookie butter. Even so, this was one of the drippiest cookie butters that I tested.

At the end of the day, I don't think this product is worth its higher price tag. Don't get me wrong; the cookie flavor was still delicious. But the spices weren't as rich as I would have liked. Plus, this product's textural composition didn't float my boat. I'm not opposed to drippy cookie butter, but this one left an oily coating on the roof of my mouth, which was an odd textural combination.

If you're looking for a pretty jar, get this cookie butter; it's made of glass, so it can easily be upcycled. But there are still better options if you're more concerned about what's inside.

For the most part, the ingredients in Sprouts Crunchy Cookie Butter Spread were predictable. But that didn't hold this product back from being one of the better ones I tasted.

For starters, it was blessedly less sweet than some of the other cookie butters in this review, with only 7 grams of added sugar per serving. For comparison, the Great Value Creamy Speculoos Cookie Butter Spread contains twice that amount (14 grams). Perhaps it was this modest sweetness that allowed the flavors in the Sprouts crunchy cookie butter to shine. I could really taste the warmth of the cinnamon dancing with the sweetness of the brown sugar syrup.

But alas, I still had a few critiques for this product. Primarily, I wanted more crunchy bits in each spoonful. Perhaps I would have enjoyed Sprouts' creamy version more, but it wasn't in stock when I was shopping. Nevertheless, the store's crunchy cookie butter was still too oily for my liking, and I imagine the creamy version would have fallen into the same trap.

It's a question one of my fellow writers has asked before: Which is better, Trader Joe's speculoos or Lotus Biscoff cookie butter? The ingredients and nutritional profiles of these two brands are quite similar, though Trader Joe's version features nutmeg, which I thought added a lovely touch. Indeed, I enjoyed the spice component more in Trader Joe's product than in all the other products in this review.

Even so, Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie Butter Spread couldn't compete with a couple other brands. That's partly because there's no brown sugar syrup in the Trader Joe's version, which my fellow writer agreed meant weaker molasses undertones. Aside from that, this product was extraordinarily thick and dense, but still oily. It was that strange combination that made this product lose out on one of the top three spots.

Would I have liked the crunchy cookie butter more? Many a Redditor has lamented the loss of this product, which was sent to the Trader Joe's graveyard only a few years ago. I'm still holding out hope for a re-release, but in the meantime, you could make your own crunchy cookie butter by stirring crushed speculoos cookies into this jar.

When it comes to ingredients and nutrition, the creamy version of Private Selection Cookie Butter is nearly identical to the crunchy version. Some folks may always prefer creamy to crunchy or vice versa, but I found that this product clearly won on the textural front. Remember: The crunchy version sometimes had me feeling like I was biting into hard bits of crystallized honey.

On the other hand, this product brought its A-game when it came to both texture and flavor. This cookie butter wasn't inordinately oily, and while it was thick, it was still easily spreadable. Its speculoos flavor was delightful (though the nutmeg was still slightly underwhelming). I would have been pleased if it were a bit less sweet, though it didn't approach the sickly sweet territory of other products on this list.

This cookie butter is delicious enough to be the star of the show on a slice of toast, but it's also affordable enough to be heaped into the batter of baked goods. If the spices had only been richer, this product may have secured the No. 2 spot.

In the world of cookie butters, the Lotus Biscoff Creamy Cookie Butter is considered the OG. Indeed, for many people, eating any other brand of cookie butter is as sacrilegious as eating an off-brand Nutella. Surely, some part of this brand allegiance has to do with the fact that Lotus is a Belgian company, and it's easy to romanticize any food that comes from across the pond. Besides, many of us have come to love Biscoff as "the airplane cookie."

After tasting this product, though, I feel that all that romanticizing actually has some merit. The flavors of this cookie butter took some time to develop on my palate, but once they did, I was extremely pleased with how well the cinnamon melded with the wheat flour and brown sugar syrup. Meanwhile, the texture of this product was as smooth and creamy as I expected. Notably, all the creamy cookie butters in this review retained a pleasant hint of graininess, reminding me they contained ground-up cookies.

Still, this product wasn't perfect. It was too oily and a tad too sweet, and the spices could have been stronger. Overall, though, it was well worth the money I paid for it.

Except for having a (very) marginal extra amount of sodium and carbohydrates, the crunchy version of Lotus Biscoff Crunchy Cookie Butter features the same ingredients and nutritional profile as the creamy version. That just goes to show how important texture is to the experience of eating.

The fine speculoos crumbles were evenly distributed throughout the jar and perfectly proportioned. What's more, the cookies didn't just help on the textural front; the earthiness of the wheat balanced the cookie butter's sweetness, too. And while the spices in the creamy version took time to surface, they were immediately evident in the crunchy version thanks to the cookie crumbles.

Like its creamy counterpart, this product still didn't tick all my boxes. I would have liked it to be a little less oily and a bit thicker. Even so, it handily beat all the other brands in this review with its excellent (if not perfect) textures and flavors. I felt like I was on an airplane while eating this cookie butter; it lived up to its name in every regard.

I chose cookie butters from a wide range of brands, including private label and health-oriented brands (as a certified nutrition coach, I'm always interested in trying "better-for-you" products). While I sometimes noted price, it was not a discriminating factor. To receive a high ranking, a product needed to meet several criteria. First, its flavor needed to be top-notch — sweet but not overwhelmingly so, and with all the caramelized complexity that we associate with the best speculoos cookies. Naturally, I knocked points off products with strange aftertastes.

I also expected the texture to be as advertised. In other words, when a cookie butter is marketed as crunchy, it needs to have a generous helping of small cookie crumbles throughout the jar. When a cookie butter is said to be smooth, it needs to offer a rich mouthfeel and no outstanding crumbs. All cookie butters should be thick, but also easily spreadable.

I tested each of these products by the spoonful, side by side. I don't fall into either the crunchy or smooth camp when it comes to nut butters and cookie butters. Both have their time and place; for instance, I wouldn't use crunchy peanut butter in peanut butter balls, but I love both kinds on toast. I therefore kept an open mind when testing each product, analyzing the quality of the crunchiness and smoothness without prior bias.