TikTok craze at the bakery; crompouce becomes the new pastry sensation
The latest sweet sensation sweeping Dutch bakeries is the "crompouce." This pastry has seen a rise in popularity recently in the Netherlands, thanks in large part to its viral presence on TikTok.
A crompouce, as its name suggests, is a fusion of a tompouce and a croissant. A tompouce is a typical Dutch pastry made of two sheets of puff pastry filled with custard cream and topped with a thin layer of pink icing. The crompouce offers a modern twist: a croissant sliced open lengthwise, filled with custard, and topped with pink icing.
Several Dutch media outlets have recently reported a surge in the popularity of the crompouce, attributing it to TikTok. Local media began reporting on it in cities like Breda in Noord-Brabant, Rijnsburg in Zuid-Holland, Hengelo in Overijssel, Hoorn in Noord-Holland, and more recently, Amsterdam. It was even spotted at an Albert Heijn in Kaatsheuvel, Noord-Brabant. The trend has since spread across the country like wildfire, with crompouces selling like hotcakes everywhere.
In Amsterdam, Bakery Lourens on the Oude Leliestraat is one of the few places that offers this unique pastry. They began selling it a few weeks ago, but it has really taken off recently. “It’s been crazy the past few days,” a staff member told NL Times on Wednesday. “On Monday, we sold almost 200. We constantly had to make new ones the whole day,” she said.
Het is een heuse hype, de crompouce. https://t.co/YqGFyyPvvs pic.twitter.com/0mx93hjnBQ
— Omroep Brabant (@omroepbrabant) October 24, 2023
The crompouce is particularly popular among young people, another staff member explained. "You can tell it's because of TikTok," she said. "They buy it and immediately take a photo or make a video." A quick visit to TikTok confirms this. There are now hundreds of videos of people trying this new pastry sensation, some with hundreds of thousands of views.
While the traditional tompouce is notoriously tricky to eat without making a mess, the crompouce offers a slightly less messy experience, which might explain its rising popularity. “But it’s also very tasty!” said one of the staff at Lourens. “It’s not just another overhyped trend. I think it’s here to stay,” she argued.
While it seems like this pastry just emerged out of the blue, online searches show that this patisserie was already sold in a bakery in Utrecht in 2021 during King’s Day. It appears that the bakery chain Baker van Maanen was the first to introduce it on a larger scale. The company explained that the crompouce was initially created seven months ago during the Tompouce Festival. Due to customer demand, it was then made available in their bakeries. Shortly after, influencers began featuring it on social media. “And then it went super fast,” the manager explained to Het Parool. “By now, all of our 62 establishments are selling the crompouce. It's unreal. We are constantly scaling up.”
Dutch chain store HEMA, known for its iconic tompouce, a household name in the Netherlands, is not planning to join the crompouce craze. A spokesperson told NL Times they would not add the new pastry to their stores' assortment. As to whether the crompouce will become a new national pastry to rival their traditional tompouce, the firm sees no reason for concern. "Our tompouce and the crompouce only reinforce each other," the spokesperson said.
