#WBD Blog
Tim Brooks Sep 22, 2026
Lotus Biscoff
Biscoff started life as a small caramelised biscuit served as a side to coffee on aeroplanes or restaurants. Then it became one of the most replicated flavours in food and drink.
Lotus Bakeries, has spent the past decade turning a single product into a flavour phenomenon, and the list of brands that have collaborated tells its own story. McDonald's launched the Biscoff McFlurry in the UK in June 2023 as a limited edition, describing it as one of its most requested collaborations. It returned in 2024, this time with a Biscoff Frappe alongside it. It came back again in April 2026. The same product, three years running, each time sold as limited edition. It's a flavour with genuine pull.
The collaborations include co-branded chocolates under Cadbury, Milka and Côte d'Or launched in 2025 following a strategic agreement with Mondelēz, with Biscoff products featuring Toblerone, Suchard, Freia and Marabou following earlier in 2026. Nestlé brought out a KitKat Chunky White with Biscoff. Krispy Kreme launched Biscoff doughnuts. Froneri produced a Biscoff ice cream range across 13 European markets. And then there was the Cadbury &More Biscoff bar — Dairy Milk chocolate topped with Biscoff biscuit chunks and filled with Biscoff spread — which extended the collaboration into the premium tablet segment.
Every collaboration introduces Biscoff to another category, occasion and group of consumers. Biscoff is now a flavour shorthand for caramelised, spiced, sweet indulgence.
This is (yet) another example of something ONLY brands can do. A sweet, caramelised, slightly spicy flavour can be developed and added to products, by just about anybody. Building a brand that has created a vast vat of mental availability for a unique, specific, repeatable and proven version of this flavour is a growth and innovation driver that few can access. Adding the Lotus Biscoff brand to a product delivers much more than the flavour. It delivers trust, memory, experience triggers and superior quality – perceived and real. It is a ROOM 101 example of why manufacturers started putting brands on products in the first place and why it is still the best (only!) way to build repeatable success in many categories.
When it partners with other brands - KitKat, Krispy Kreme, Froneri, Suchard, Freia, Marabou, Cadbury, Milka, Côte d'Or, English Cheesecake Company et al for example – it creates something special. Again, something an own-label version can never get close too. The melding of two established, multi-layered, easily decoded and loved experiences builds something engaging and new - but reassuringly familiar - in the magic of 1+1=3 situation.
This is never a slam dunk, only some brands can do this – their equity is stretchable enough to carry it off, without diluting the core. Lotus Biscoff is a gold standard example; they stretch it with imagination and good sense. Whilst still selling lots of biscuits!
Taste is uniquely evocative. Great brands are uniquely evocative. Even talking about it triggers memories... some Biscoff Cheesecake beckons. Great work. As we repeatedly say it is #whatbrandsdo.
