How New Mexico’s Beloved Cookie Inspired Biscochito Bliss at Santa Fe Popcorn Co.

There are flavors that taste like a place. In New Mexico, the warm, sandy crunch of a biscochito, anise rising like a secret spice in the air, the faint whisper of cinnamon sugar, and the buttery richness that melts in your mouth is one of those tastes. It’s a cookie that carries centuries of story in every bite: Spanish roots, family kitchens, holiday tables, and a moment in time when an entire state said, “Yes, this is ours.” That same sense of rootedness and joy is what led Santa Fe Popcorn Co. to open with Biscochito Bliss as our flagship flavor. Here’s the story behind the cookie, and how its history and heart shaped our popcorn.

Tradition, shape, and regional variations

Biscochitos are often cut into symbolic shapes fleur-de-lis, stars, circles, or Christian crosses. Each carrying a layer of cultural meaning (celebration, blessing, good luck). Ingredients and techniques shift by household: some bakers use brandy, some prefer lard for traditional texture, while others use butter. In certain parts of New Mexico you’ll find playful local twists like pecan, cranberry, or even chile additions testifying to the cookie’s elasticity and the region’s appetite for remixing the familiar.

Why the biscochito matters — beyond flavor

It’s tempting to reduce the biscochito to its ingredients, but its cultural weight is what makes it remarkable. For generations, biscochitos have been a centerpiece at holidays and rites of passage the cookie that signals “we are gathered” and “we are remembering.” In naming it the state cookie, New Mexico wasn’t just celebrating a recipe; it was celebrating the community bakers who kept family tables full and rituals alive. Even today, small bakeries and home kitchens pass recipes down and gather on December evenings to roll, cut, and dust dozens of cookies.

Translating a cookie into popcorn: the idea behind Biscochito Bliss

At Santa Fe Popcorn Co., our mission is to celebrate Santa Fe’s flavors and the stories they hold — but in popcorn form. Why launch with Biscochito Bliss? Because the biscochito is both instantly local and surprisingly adaptable: its core notes butteriness (or ghee as we prefer), anise, cinnamin, and sugar map beautifully onto the airy, crunchy canvas of popcorn.

A few reasons it made perfect sense for our debut flavor:

• Culturally relevant. Biscochitos are an emblem of New Mexican hospitality. Launching with that flavor was our way of tipping our hat to home kitchens, holiday tables, and the families who taught us what New Mexican taste means.

• Aromatic clarity. The dominant anise and cinnamon notes are strong enough to read on each popped kernel without overpowering the snack; they provide a clean, memorable flavor profile.

• Texture. Popcorn is all about contrast. Light, crisp kernels coated with a buttery base and a dusting of flavor. That mirrors the biscochito’s sandy shortbread texture paired with sugary spice.

• Creative license. Like bakers who riff on the cookie (pecans, cranberries, chile), we could nod to tradition while bringing a modern, shelf-stable snack to market, air-popped, finished in ghee, and without preservatives (that’s how we do it at Santa Fe Popcorn Co.).

The making of Biscochito Bliss — from pantry to popcorn tin

Translating biscochito into popcorn is equal parts science and sensibility. Here’s how the idea becomes something you can eat by the handful:

1. Air-popped kernels to preserve a clean, bright mouthfeel. (No greasy heaviness.)

2. Ghee as our flavor carrier — it gives that rounded, buttery richness that echoes the cookie’s shortbread base while being stable and fragrant. (Yes, everything we do is air-popped and finished in ghee.)

3. Anise-forward seasoning — a carefully measured touch of anise powder to provide the cookie’s floral, licorice-adjacent lift without overwhelming.

4. Cinnamon-sugar — the finishing sparkle that ties the whole profile together and makes each bite sing.

5. No preservatives — because we believe in simple, honest ingredients that celebrate flavor, not hide it.

The result is a bag of popcorn that tastes like walking into your abuela’s kitchen during the holidays, warm, fragrant, and utterly comforting.

What Biscochito Bliss means to us

Launching with Biscochito Bliss wasn’t about marketing, it was a statement about values. It says: we honor place; we lift up family recipes and the people who keep those traditions alive; and we love flavor enough to translate it thoughtfully into something new. Our popcorn preserves the cookie’s essence while inviting new conversations at movie nights, holiday gift tables, and gift boxes for friends far from home.

If you’ve grown up with biscochitos, we hope Biscochito Bliss tastes like home with a playful twist. If you’re discovering the flavor for the first time, let that anise surprise you,

then pass the bag, because this is a snack made for sharing.

Curious to try the flavor that started it all? Pop open a bag of Biscochito Bliss and taste the story: centuries of New Mexico in a handful. ¡Buen provecho!