diff --git a/packages/spacebars-compiler/codegen.js b/packages/spacebars-compiler/codegen.js
index 8641e9d9e4..3c8e142c39 100644
--- a/packages/spacebars-compiler/codegen.js
+++ b/packages/spacebars-compiler/codegen.js
@@ -150,6 +150,8 @@ _.extend(CodeGen.prototype, {
 
           return BlazeTools.EmitCode(includeCode);
         }
+      } else if (tag.type === 'ESCAPE') {
+        return HTML.Raw(tag.value);
       } else {
         // Can't get here; TemplateTag validation should catch any
         // inappropriate tag types that might come out of the parser.
diff --git a/packages/spacebars-compiler/spacebars_tests.js b/packages/spacebars-compiler/spacebars_tests.js
index f86fe9fab6..f5ab56c3d4 100644
--- a/packages/spacebars-compiler/spacebars_tests.js
+++ b/packages/spacebars-compiler/spacebars_tests.js
@@ -164,6 +164,9 @@ Tinytest.add("spacebars-compiler - stache tags", function (test) {
   run('{{foo "="}}', {type: 'DOUBLE', path: ['foo'],
                         args: [['STRING', '=']]});
 
+  run('{{| asdf', { type: 'ESCAPE', value: '{{' });
+  run('{{{| asdf', { type: 'ESCAPE', value: '{{{' });
+  run('{{{{| asdf', { type: 'ESCAPE', value: '{{{{' });
 });
 
 
diff --git a/packages/spacebars-compiler/templatetag.js b/packages/spacebars-compiler/templatetag.js
index e3ff5a789e..34b74cef14 100644
--- a/packages/spacebars-compiler/templatetag.js
+++ b/packages/spacebars-compiler/templatetag.js
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ SpacebarsCompiler = {};
 // - `"BLOCKOPEN"` - `{{#foo}}`
 // - `"BLOCKCLOSE"` - `{{/foo}}`
 // - `"ELSE"` - `{{else}}`
+// - `"ESCAPE"` - `{{|`, `{{{|`, `{{{{|` and so on
 //
 // Besides `type`, the mandatory properties of a TemplateTag are:
 //
@@ -53,6 +54,7 @@ var makeStacheTagStartRegex = function (r) {
 };
 
 var starts = {
+  ESCAPE: makeStacheTagStartRegex(/^[\{]{2,}\|/),
   ELSE: makeStacheTagStartRegex(/^\{\{\s*else(?=[\s}])/i),
   DOUBLE: makeStacheTagStartRegex(/^\{\{\s*(?!\s)/),
   TRIPLE: makeStacheTagStartRegex(/^\{\{\{\s*(?!\s)/),
@@ -88,6 +90,7 @@ TemplateTag.parse = function (scannerOrString) {
       return null;
     var ret = result[0];
     scanner.pos += ret.length;
+    scanner.current = ret;
     return ret;
   };
 
@@ -230,9 +233,10 @@ TemplateTag.parse = function (scannerOrString) {
     error('Expected ' + what);
   };
 
-  // must do ELSE first; order of others doesn't matter
-
-  if (run(starts.ELSE)) type = 'ELSE';
+  // must do ESCAPE first, immediately followed by ELSE
+  // order of others doesn't matter
+  if (run(starts.ESCAPE)) type = 'ESCAPE';
+  else if (run(starts.ELSE)) type = 'ELSE';
   else if (run(starts.DOUBLE)) type = 'DOUBLE';
   else if (run(starts.TRIPLE)) type = 'TRIPLE';
   else if (run(starts.BLOCKCOMMENT)) type = 'BLOCKCOMMENT';
@@ -263,6 +267,8 @@ TemplateTag.parse = function (scannerOrString) {
   } else if (type === 'ELSE') {
     if (! run(ends.DOUBLE))
       expected('`}}`');
+  } else if (type === 'ESCAPE') {
+    tag.value = scanner.current.slice(0, -1);
   } else {
     // DOUBLE, TRIPLE, BLOCKOPEN, INCLUSION
     tag.path = scanPath();