Peperkoek rivalry

The town’s museum holds a silver Guild cup dated 1659, inscribed with a poem that starts with the words: ‘Deventer koek is highly praised throughout Holland’.

Deventer was an important town from the early Middle Ages because of its location by the IJssel river that made it a part of the Hanseatic League. Towns with a connection to the water or trade routes generally have a rich koek culture. In an attempt to bypass the Deventer koek bakers, the city of Amsterdam even decided to draw up guidelines for the size and weight of the koek that could be sold in Amsterdam. The Deventer koek did not meet the weight, according to those new rules of course, so it was for a time banned in Amsterdam, which allowed the Amsterdam koek bakers to make more profit. Deventer sent an envoy and the koek issue and the feud between the towns over koek was eventually solved. Amsterdammers loved koek so much they were even dubbed ‘koek eaters’ in the 16th century because of their sweet tooth.