Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter: (Everything You Need to Know)

If you haven’t tried Trader Joe’s iconic Speculoos Cookie Butter yet, what are you waiting for? It’s practically a rite of passage to pick up a jar of cookie butter your first time in a Trader Joe’s.

Read on to learn what cookie butter is, what to do with it, and where to find it.

Does Trader Joe’s Sell Cookie Butter ?

Yes, Trader Joe’s sells Cookie Butter in 2022. If you’re having difficulty finding any, it may be because of supply chain issues since TJ’s Cookie Butter is a product of the Netherlands.

About Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter

Speculoos is a Belgian spiced gingerbread shortbread cookie that is also popular in the Netherlands (as speculaas or Dutch windmill cookies) and Germany (as spekulatius). Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter is a shelf-stable, jarred spread made from ground speculoos cookies and vegetable oils.

The spread has a consistency similar to peanut butter. Plus, being ground cookies rather than raw cookie dough, you can indulge without worries about rogue bacteria.

It’s a Trader Joe’s staple, and it most recently won a TJ’s Customer Choice Award in 2015.

Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter Ingredients

• Wheat flour
• Candy sugar
• Palm oil
• Canola oil
• Coconut oil
• Rapeseed oil
• Water
• Salt
• Vegetable mono- and glycerides from fatty acids
• Citric acid
• Lactic acid
• Beta carotene
• Butter flavor (non-dairy)
• Sugar
• Soy flour
• Sugar syrup
• Sodium hydrogen carbonate
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Rapeseed lecithin

Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter Flavors

Trader Joe’s has had three flavors of cookie butter:

• Speculoos Cookie Butter: TJ’s original speculoos cinnamon- and nutmeg-flavored cookie butter

• Speculoos Crunchy Cookie Butter: TJ’s original cookie butter with crushed speculoos cookies mixed in for crunch

• Speculoos Cookie & Cocoa Swirl: TJ’s original cookie butter with chocolate cream swirls (discontinued in 2020 but constantly requested by fans)

Some Speculoos Cookie Butter Recipes

• Cookie Butter Milkshake: Vanilla ice cream, milk, and cookie butter are all you’ll need to make this dairy treat. Drizzling caramel on top can take it to the next level.
• Cookie Butter Sandwich: Cookie butter, raspberry preserves, and banana slices on French brioche bread make an excellent any-time sandwich.
• Peeled Banana & Cookie Butter Cake: You’ll go bananas over this 4-tiered cookie-butter-milk-soaked banana bread layered with cookie butter cream cheese frosting and banana slices.
• Cookie Butter Cheesecake: If the freezer section of TJ’s doesn’t have cookie butter cheesecake, you can still make your own with a speculoos cookie crust and a crumbled cookie and melted cookie butter topping.
• Cookie Butter Peanut Butter Cups: Powdered sugar, cookie butter, vanilla, chocolate chips, and shortening is all you need to bring these treats back from TJ’s discontinuation purgatory.

What Do You Eat Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter With?

Cookie butter can be baffling when you open up the jar for the first time. Just exactly how do you eat it? Wonder no more. Here are five ways to enjoy TJ’s Cookie Butter:

With a Spoon

Probably the most popular way to eat Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter is with a spoon, just like you might sneak a bite of peanut butter or Nutella. Just get a fresh spoon out of the drawer, procure a heaping spoon of cookie butter out of the jar, and enjoy.

On Toast

Another way to eat cookie butter is on toast. Toast your bread, add a tablespoon full of cookie butter to the toast, and spread to cover. It spreads easiest when the toast is still hot.

For a special treat, try mixing it with jelly, Nutella, peanut butter, or even honey.

With Apple Slices

Apple slices make an excellent vehicle for transporting cookie butter to your mouth. Simply dip your apple slice into cookie butter like you would dip it into caramel, and crunch away.

As a Waffle or Pancake Topping

Cookie butter is a topping that can give plain waffles or pancakes an added textural level and added spice. Simply spread a tablespoon on top of waffles hot off the griddle. You can also add a further layer of fruit or even whipped cream for a truly unique waffle experience.

As a Frosting Mixed with Cream Cheese

Mix cream cheese and cookie butter together to make a no-fuss, spicy cream cheese frosting to top a cake, cookie, or cinnamon roll. Try mixing equal parts cream cheese and cookie butter, adding more cream cheese or cookie butter to achieve the texture and taste that tastes best to you.

Types of Cookie Butter Products at Trader Joe’s

The problem with products at Trader Joe’s is that they come and go over time. Most of these cookie butter products have cycled in and out of the store.  Fans continue holding on to the edge of their seats hoping to see them again. Is anything truly gone forever at Joe’s?

Here are five cookie butter products you may find at Trader Joe’s.

Speculoos Cookie Butter Ice Cream

TJ’s Cookie Butter Ice Cream is one of TJ’s best cookie butter inventions. It blends creamy vanilla with the spiced flavor of Speculoos Cookie Butter and has a taste reminiscent of horchata. You’ll find swirls of actual cookie butter throughout.

Cookie Butter Sandwich Cookies

These sandwich cookies include two butter cookies with a cookie butter filling.  There’s not nearly as much cookie butter between the butter cookies as you see on the picture on the box, but the flavor is still superb. They’re also popular enough to find online if you don’t have a TJ’s store near you.

Speculoos Cookie Butter Beer

If your Trader Joe’s has an alcohol section, you’ll probably find Speculoos Cookie Butter Beer there. This cookie butter beer comes through the Hardywood Park Craft Brewery out of Richmond, Virginia. It’s a medium-bodied beer that captures the flavor of butter, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg from the cookie butter without being cloyingly sweet.

Speculoos Cookie Butter Cheesecake

You can occasionally find a Cookie Butter Cheesecake or even Cookie Butter Cheesecake Bites among the frozen desserts at TJ’s. Cookie Butter Cheesecake combines the tangy taste of cheesecake with the warm spice of speculoos cookie butter. The box says you should wait for it to thaw before eating, but eating it frozen is just as nice.

Dark Chocolate Cookie Butter Cups

The Dark Chocolate Cookie Butter Cups are among the many beloved desserts that fans continue to demand to see back on the shelves. They were popular enough that there are several copycat recipes for them online.

Imagine a Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup with sweet, creamy cookie butter inside instead of sweet, creamy peanut butter, and you’ve just imagined what a Dark Chocolate Cookie Butter Cup would be like.

Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter vs Biscoff

Lotus Biscoff Cookie Butter has been around longer. However, people differ on whether they prefer Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter to Lotus Biscoff Cookie Butter. They’re both similar in price, however, here are some differences:

• Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter: slightly granular, drier, has more crunchy bits, only available at TJ’s or online
• Lotus Biscoff Cookie Butter: sweeter, richer, oilier, creamier, more spreadable, spicier, easier to find at major grocery stores

Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter Nutrition Facts

Serving size: 1 Tablespoon

Calories per serving: 90

Fat calories per serving: 50

Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter Price

If you buy your cookie butter directly from Trader Joe’s, it will cost around $3.69 per jar. However, if you buy it from an online source, it will cost between $6.49 and $55 per jar.

Where to Buy Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter

Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter is so popular that it’s one of the Trader Joe’s products that’s possible to find in places other than just USA Trader Joe’s stores.

Here’s a list of several online stores where you can also find TJ’s Cookie Butter if you don’t have a TJ’s nearby:

• Amazon.com
• Bonanza.com
• ebay.com
• Ftrustedbrands.com
• GroceryEShop.us
• TrueGether.com
• Walmart.com

FAQs

Here are some other questions you might have about TJ’s cookie butter.

Is Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter healthy?

Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter isn’t particularly healthy.

A serving of Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter does not provide any daily recommended vitamins or minerals. It does contain 5g of fat and 8g of carbs. It also contains palm oil, which has a type of fat that can increase cholesterol levels.

On the positive side, it doesn’t have any cholesterol or sodium.

Is Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter Vegan?

Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter is a vegan product. It uses margarine and butter flavor rather than real butter. It is also free from eggs, other dairy products, and non-vegan emulsifiers.

Did Trader Joe’s Discontinue Cookie Butter?

There’s no need to worry; Trader Joe’s has not discontinued their cookie butter.

Does Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter Need to Be Refrigerated?

There’s no need to refrigerate TJ’s Cookie Butter. In fact, the packaging says not to refrigerate it because several of the ingredients, like palm oil and coconut oil, would harden at colder temperatures.

Does Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter Have Dairy/Gluten/Nuts?

Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter contains wheat. It also may contain traces of tree nuts, milk, and eggs. Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter is not gluten-free. With the possibility of traces of dairy or nuts, it also may not be safe for anyone with a dairy or nut allergy.