Speculoos Smuggler

Speculoos Smuggler

I am a speculoos addict. I have been hopelessly hooked on its sweet delicious taste ever since I tried my first sample. Since that day I have tried all different kinds of speculoos products; sandwich spreads, ice-creams, biscuits, hagelslag. The list goes on and on. Neither rehab or any amount of interventions have done anything to reduce my insanely uncontrollable cravings.

So when I learnt about the existence of a new speculoos product I knew I had to have it. There was only one problem. It was only available in Belgium. What could I do? The answer was simple. I was going to Belgium to get some chocolate speculoos.

Luckily two of my friends were also very interested in the idea of a daytrip to Belgium (one of them suggested it). This was good because I knew a group travelling together would arouse much less suspicion than a man travelling alone.

Getting into Belgium was the easy part. We boarded a train and entered the country un-noticed. Once there we took photos, made comments about the architecture, visited bars and did all the other things ‘innocent’ tourists usually do while all the time I could think of nothing else but chocolate speculoos.

Just when I thought I could not control my addiction any longer and was about to ask a local drug dealer if they sold speculoos we found it. The stuff was being sold in shops every where… in broad daylight. I could not believe my luck I bought as much of the stuff as I could (two bars).

It was only on the return journey that I started to worry. I suddenly realized I was smuggling chocolate speculoos across the border from Belgium to Holland. What if we were stopped? What if we were searched? Two bars is a lot for one person. Could I be arrested with intent to distribute? What if there were sniffer dogs?

I was suddenly snapped out of my internal panic by a ticket inspector asking to see our tickets. I almost gave him a full confession in a blind panic.

As it turns out (despite its highly addictive nature) chocolate speculoos is not illegal and I was allowed to keep my supplies and return home.

It was all gone within two days. Anyone want to go to Belgium?

Speculoos Smuggler

Stuart

Stuart is an accident prone Englishman who has been living in the Netherlands since 2001. Even his move to the country was an unintentional accident, the result of replying to a cryptic job advertisement he found one day in a local British magazine. Since then he has learned to love the Dutch (so much so that he married one of them) and now calls the country home. He started the blog Invading Holland in 2006 as a place to share his strange stories of language misunderstandings, cultural confusions and his own accident prone nature.

22 Responses

  1. Alison says:

    Yuuuuuuuuuuum!

  2. Ooh – you’ve certainly come to the right place if you like the stuff. Let me know next time you manage to slip across the border and we can arrange a covert meeting for some sneaky speculoos trading …

    :-)

  3. French Bean says:

    Well, I’m always up for a trip to Europe, particularly if it involves Speculoos. We addicts gotta stick together, after all. >.>

  4. Jules says:

    I’ll go to Belgium with you just for the hell of it :-D And I won’t even make any snarky comments about dead babies in your suitcase full of chocolate speculoos, either

  5. Citizen Stu says:

    Alison – Indeed :)

    Unexpected Traveller – Sound illegal but I’m in.

    French Bean – I still feel guilty for getting you hooked. I’m like an old drug addict mentor.

    Jules – Dead babies?

  6. thamarai says:

    Hey.. I seem to have missed this out while in NL..or eaten it somewhere without realizing it..

  7. Bart says:

    You know, real pros ingest large quantities of the stuff to get it across the border unnoticed. On the other hand, real pros also put their stuff in condoms before swallowing it, and you don’t want to know what they do once they arrive.

    And I’m always game for an international dealers’ meeting with UT when you come this way again, so you don’t have to buy that cheap stuff again that’s cut up with washing powder and stuff.

  8. Citizen Stu says:

    Thamarai – You are lucky to have missed out on it. That means it can’t take over your life.

    Bart – I obviously have so much to learn. If you have the good stuff then we definitely have to meet up next time.

  9. Dave2 says:

    Can I have that on top of a stroopwafel?

  10. Citizen Stu says:

    Dave2 – Owww. That’s a good idea. It could either be really amazing or really bad.

  11. AQK1982 says:

    I think you have to keep on smuggling, because the Appie only has Cote d’or speculaas……
    Maybe you can write the supportdesk of Cote d’or for a survivalkit for the time being?

  12. Winchester Daily Photos says:

    Oh my god! I had no idea this combo existed! Cote D’Or and speculoos – 2 of my favourite things! I go to Brussels a lot for work, if only I could ditch the work bit & spend some time tracking these down!

  13. Jason B says:

    We stopped by a Douwe Egberts cafe today, and their current special is “speculooccino” and “speculoostaart”. We tried the speculooccino, it tasted like liquid speculoos. I’m glad we don’t live close enough to a DE to go there more often. It would be dangerous.

  14. Citizen Stu says:

    AQK1982 – I guess I could make some money smuggling the stuff in to Holland. But would I get away with it is the question.

    Winchester Daily Photo – I’m sure if you tell them the importance of Cot D’Or Speculoos they would understand. If they don’t you should quit :p

    Jason B – I am now checking google maps for the closest Douwe Egberts. I HAVE to try this stuff :D

  15. Heather says:

    Yay!! And now I have a new one for you that I found at the chocolate festival.

    Notice the “kopen” button on the left side, once you have shuffled through to the Speculoos bar.

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