Forty years later the fourth Boone to run Lotus – Jan took over from his father, Matthieu, Karel’s brother, in 2011 – has transformed a low-key freebie handed out by airlines, hairdressers and cafés into an unlikely global snacking juggernaut and Gen Z obsession.

Armies of food influencers on TikTok and Instagram have cooked up viral Biscoff “hacks” and recipes for tiramisus, cakes, milkshakes, mousses and blondies. Ice cream sellers will roll your scoop in Biscoff crumbs. The biscuit has also spawned an artery-bothering range of spin-offs and licensing deals, from a dangerously good Biscoff spread to Krispy Kreme Biscoff doughnuts and a Lotus Biscoff McFlurry.

Then there are Biscoff-flecked Milkybars, KitKats and – soon – Cadbury products. My local Sainsbury’s has 15 items with the Biscoff name on the label, including ice cream sticks and cheesecake. Foodsnobs, a street-food restaurant in the Shropshire town of Bridgnorth, has billed itself “the home of Biscoff fried chicken” – they coat it in Biscoff crumbs and add a Biscoff drizzle, which apparently sells well, whether or not it sounds remotely appealing.

“It’s just so versatile,” says Eloise Head, aka Fitwaffle, an influencer turned food writer whose latest book, Fitwaffle’s Easy Air Fryer, contains five Biscoff recipes, including an apple crumble and a French toast bake. “It’s an alternative to chocolate that’s delicious in pretty much any dessert but also has a unique flavour,” she says.

A video of Head making no-bake Biscoff cheesecake bars has scored 67 million views across TikTok and Instagram since she posted it in 2022. “Sometimes I just add Biscoff spread to chopped-up apple,” says the Surrey-based former gym manager, 30, a full-time food influencer since 2019.

Meanwhile the biscuits, whether they end up in packs or individually wrapped, are now made at a rate of more than 20 million a day, in factories in Belgium and the US.

When Snoop Dogg talked Vogue readers through the contents of his travel bag in a video shot at the Paris Olympics last summer, he pulled out Snoop-branded wine and crisps, a can of gin and juice – and a single Biscoff. “This motherf***er right here is bomb!” he said, holding it up before eating it. “Whatever this flavour is, y’all got this down to a science!”

There’s a small amount of cinnamon in Biscoff but the principal caramel flavour comes from kandij sugar, a Belgian confection made by heating white beet sugar. Somehow the resulting biscuits are crumbly yet snappy, like the Flemish lovechild of shortbread and ginger snaps. They’re also extremely sweet, containing 3g sugar per 8g biscuit – more than twice the proportion of sugar in a digestive.

“That was quite impactful,” Boone says of Snoop Dogg’s unexpected endorsement. “The whole team felt quite proud.” And rightfully so: Biscoff’s global popularity, after more than 90 years of gentle baking, boosted Lotus’s revenues above €1.2 billion ($2.2b) last year, a rise of 16 per cent on the previous year. Net profits were up 19 per cent to almost €156 million ($287m).

The company, which is majority-owned by the Boone and Stevens families – the latter another Belgian baking dynasty that teamed up with the Boones in 1974 – now has more than 3,000 employees and 12 production sites around the world making dozens of other baked goods. Two plants are dedicated to Biscoff – one opened in North Carolina in the US in 2019 – and a third is due to be fired up in Thailand in 2026. The company’s share price has quadrupled in the past five years.

TikTok virality has been a surprise, says Boone, who claims to be one of five people at Lotus who know the precise Biscoff recipe. But growth has been no accident. The executive, who studied economics and worked for accounting and pharmaceutical firms before returning to the family business in 2005, launched the expansion strategy when he became CEO. Initially he planned to “internationalise” all of Lotus’s products, which were sold largely in northern Europe, but then he decided to focus on Biscoff.

As well as shrewd corporate manoeuvring and an investment in marketing, Biscoff – like other regional delicacies that have achieved unlikely global success, including Jägermeister and Flying Goose Sriracha – has benefited from an air of authenticity.

“It has helped build up this huge brand loyalty on social media that has given Lotus the power to push out into new areas,” says Ben Roberts at License Global, which analyses brand licensing and partnerships – a growing trend in food (examples include Heinz’s Frozen-themed Pasta Shapes or Yoplait’s Peppa Pig yoghurt pots). “It feels more authentic and organic because it’s serving demand.”

The Biscoff boom now extends beyond the brand itself, inspiring a host of “caramelised biscuit” products that don’t use the Biscoff name, avoiding the need for costly licensing deals. Last summer Yorkshire Tea launched teabags “with the irresistible flavour of those crunchy continental classics”. In January Weetabix revealed a biscuit-flavoured version of its Crispy Minis.

Yet Belgians are baffled by the spectacular success of speculoos. “I was on my book tour in San Francisco in 2023 and on Pier 39 there was this whole Biscoff coffee shop,” says Regula Ysewijn, the Belgian food writer and judge on Belgium’s version of Bake Off. Her book of festive baking recipes, Dark Rye and Honey Cake, includes a traditional speculaas biscuit, which is harder and spicier than Biscoff.

“I was, like, ‘Oh my God, how is this possible?’ I mean, this is like your digestive biscuit. Everyone has it in their cupboards, but it’s not special.”

Ysewijn thinks that the biscuit has just the right level of flavour to be interesting yet universally appealing. “I think its strength is that it’s so incredibly simple, and sometimes simple is best,” she says.

That and all the sugar. Aware of growing scrutiny triggered by an obesity crisis, a decade ago Lotus began investing in products perceived to be healthier. It has largely focused on small British brands and now owns Kiddylicious, a baby food brand; Bear, whose Yoyos – dried fruit coils – have become a lunchbox staple; and Natural Balance Foods, which makes Nakd and Trek snack bars. Where these contain sugar, it is largely from the fruit in them.

Jan Jr’s dough raids may be a distant memory, but he still eats at least one Biscoff every day. “In Belgium we dip them into coffee or milk, but you have to be careful because even two seconds is too long,” he says. (I’ve tested this and he’s right – they dissolve almost immediately.) His grandfather died long before his biscuit took off, but Matthieu is still around and calls the current CEO at least once a week. “The first question is always, ‘How are sales this week?’ ” Boone says. “He’s still very passionate.”

Boone is confident that Biscoff’s relatively low price and broad appeal mean it will be more than a fad – he’s not worried about his Biscoff empire crumbling. In a soft Flemish accent, he says he’s more concerned about building factories fast enough: “We want to conquer the world.”

Written by: Simon Usborne

© The Times of London