Why are the names so similar?
The Dutch word “loos” means “without” in English. Speculoos actually means cookies without speculaas.
The names are often used interchangeably these days, which can lead to confusion. Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ll know the difference and won’t get confused again.
A quick history lesson
The Netherlands had a rich spice trade with the VOC (Dutch East India Company) in the 17th century. All kinds of spices were transported from the colonies to the Netherlands.
Eventually they started making mixtures of these spices, and that’s how speculaas came to be used to make cookies.
But in Belgium they did not have access to all these spices, it was very expensive for them. So at the beginning of the 20th century, they came up with an alternative: speculoos. They used only cinnamon, but added brown sugar syrup to make them more flavorful.
A short summary
Even though the name is almost the same, speculaas and speculoos are two different flavors/cookies. Speculaas is a typical Dutch cookie and gets its flavor of different spices used in the speculaas spice mix.
Speculoos cookies have been created as ‘cookie without speculaas spices’ in Belgium. The brand Lotus is known for their speculoos cookies. The taste comes from the special production process of the caramelisation of sugar in the cookie. Speculoos often includes only one spice: cinnamon.