Soho Coffee Co.

‘Biscoff Collection’ elevates Soho Coffee menu

The good-mood, food-led, coffee and bakery business, Soho Coffee, is a crafted, conscious coffee shop chain, that offers customers good mood food throughout the day, as well as a range of hot and cold beverages and freshly hand-made pastries. The chain, which originally started in 1999 in Cheltenham, currently operates over 35 outlets in the UK and 10 stores internationally. Sam Shutt, Group CEO of BTC Hospitality, owners of Soho Coffee, asks that all colleagues bring three key values to the business:

‘Number one is to be consistently good; number two is to be proud to serve, and number three is to be the good in someone's day. If we do all these things and we create great moments, whatever the occasion, our customers will have a fantastic time with us.’

To improve their already great menu and to get ahead in the fiercely competitive market, Soho Coffee recently sought to link with leading consumer brands as part of their new product development initiative. As Sam explains, one brand stood out from the rest:

‘The most successful partnership to date has been with Biscoff.  We introduced what we called the ‘Biscoff Collection’ last year which comprised of three key products; Our now-famous SOnut, a Biscoff Blondie Hot Chocolate, and a delicious Biscoff Shake.’

During the development phase of the new product range, Mary Rotsching, Product Developer at Soho Coffee, experimented with a range of products, but it soon became clear that to partner with Biscoff was the best choice:

‘I started experimenting with Speculoos ingredients but quickly found that it wasn't delivering the Biscoff flavour that so many people have come to love. With Biscoff being a really powerful household name, we knew that if we officially linked with the brand, then we could have something really exciting which would provide authenticity to our customers.’

But what exactly is the ‘Biscoff Sonut’?  Mary explains all:

‘The Sonut itself is a hybrid between a croissant and a donut. So, it's a really flaky, sugar-coated donut ring. We then make a Biscoff cream, which has the Biscoff Topping Sauce folded throughout. That's piped onto the base of the Sonut, and then just to make the filling even more indulgent, we add more of the Biscoff Topping Sauce. It’s then finished with even more Biscoff Topping Sauce and some Biscoff crumb, to get a nice crunch.  

The initial idea behind the partnership was that the ‘Biscoff Collection’ would be a limited time offer on Soho Coffee’s autumn menu however, as Mary explains, the products are so popular they still remain a core menu item almost 12 months later:

‘Here we are in the middle of summer and the ‘Biscoff Collection’ is still doing incredibly well. Biscoff products bring a smile to the customer’s face, and I have yet to find anyone who doesn’t love it!’

After such a successful collaboration, Sam could not recommend Biscoff enough:

'I would 100% recommend having Biscoff products on your menu. We can see its increased engagement, increased sales, and importantly increased our social media. I would do it again in a heartbeat tomorrow.’