Short answer: yes, and it is not particularly close. Walk into almost any independent bakery in the UK and ask what sells out first. The answer comes back caramelised, biscuit coloured and Belgian. But popularity claims deserve scrutiny, so weigh the evidence before accepting the crown.

The Case For Biscoff

The numbers behind the trend are striking for what is, at heart, a coffee shop biscuit. Lotus Bakeries has reported year after year of double digit growth on the Biscoff brand, with the spread now sold in dozens of countries and the biscuit baked into everything from McDonald’s McFlurries to supermarket doughnuts. Search interest tells the same story: queries for Biscoff cheesecake dwarf those for almost every rival flavour in the UK, and the hashtag has accumulated hundreds of millions of views across TikTok and Instagram. Bakery owners confirm it from the till. When a counter holds eight cheesecake flavours, Biscoff routinely outsells the next two combined.

Why This Biscuit, Of All Biscuits

Three forces collided. Nostalgia first: millions of Britons met Biscoff as the little wrapped biscuit beside a coffee or on an aeroplane tray, so the flavour arrives pre-loaded with warm associations. Chemistry second: the caramelised, cinnamon-edged speculoos taste pairs almost unfairly well with cream cheese, cutting through the richness the way coffee cuts through tiramisu. Accessibility third, and this one is underrated: the biscuits themselves contain no dairy or egg, which means a skilled baker can build a fully vegan Biscoff cheesecake that tastes nearly identical to the original. No other flagship flavour converts to plant-based this gracefully, and in 2026, that flexibility moves serious volume.

The Rivals Are Making A Run At The Title

Pistachio is the genuine challenger. The Dubai chocolate craze dragged pistachio and knafeh into every dessert format going, and pistachio cheesecakes now sell briskly wherever bakeries make them properly, with real paste rather than green colouring. Salted caramel holds its perennial second place through sheer reliability. White chocolate and raspberry own the summer months. Kinder Bueno commands the under-25 order, and red velvet refuses to die despite a decade of predictions. Each one wins a niche. None of them wins the week.

The Counterargument Worth Hearing

Trend flavours burn bright and fade, and food forecasters have predicted Biscoff fatigue every January since 2021. The fatigue keeps failing to arrive. The likeliest explanation: Biscoff stopped behaving like a trend years ago and started behaving like a category staple, the way salted caramel did before it. Flavours built on a single viral moment collapse when the algorithm moves on. Flavours built on a biscuit people have trusted since 1932 stick around.

The Verdict

Guilty of being the nation’s favourite, on overwhelming evidence. Pistachio may take the crown eventually, and a good bakery counter should carry both, but right now the caramelised biscuit sits comfortably at the top of the order list. The real divide is no longer which flavour to choose. It is the gulf between a lazy version, a plain vanilla cheesecake with spread smeared on top, and a serious one, where crushed biscuits form the base, the spread swirls through the batter, and a whole biscuit crowns each slice. If you want to test the verdict yourself, seek out the best Biscoff cheesecake in West London and order a slice of each style side by side. The difference explains the entire phenomenon better than any sales figure could.