Blue Coffee Panda

Why Japan has So Many KitKat™ Flavors (A KitKat™ Primer)

Matcha Kit Kats? Wasabi Kit Kats? Soy Sauce Kit Kats? Maybe you've heard there's over 350 flavors of Kit Kat in Japan. By Why? Why so popular? Why all the flavors? What are Kit Kats!?

This is everything you didn't know about Kit Kats (And a few things you probably did.)

My name is Philip. For the last year I've been researching Kit Kats as part of my PhD in Kit Kat Studies.

Just kidding, I made that up. I don't think Kit Kat Studies is a real thing... (unless someone wants to give me a PhD in Kit Kat Studies.)

Today we're taking a deep dive into the world of Kit Kat, the company that invented them, and the reasons they are extremely popular in Japan.

This candied story begins in 1862 with a gentleman by the name of Henry Isaac Rowntree when he founded a company called Rowntree in Castlegate, York. The company started small. In 1869 they only had 12 employees. Over the next 120 years this small company would grow to the 4th largest candy company in the world.

Initially, Rowntree was famous for their Fruit Pastilles a gummy, fruit flavored candy coated in sugar. And they would eventually be known for inventing Kit Kats and Smarties (the chocolate ones). But at this point in time Rowntree still wanted to break into chocolate business, a business which was dominated by Cadbury.

Several important things happened in the 1800's which would change the confectionery industry forever. The first was the invention of a coca press by Van Houten. In 1828 Van Houten patented a hydraulic press which pressed the fat out of the cocoa bean and produced a less fatty "cake" which could easily be turned into cocoa powder. This powder is the foundation of everything chocolate. Ten years later the patent expired allowing other companies access to this efficient method of chocolate production.

Other major changes of the 1800s were population growth and an increase in wages. The population of Great Britain tripled between 1800 and 1900. Towns and cities grew in size. The cost of food (and importing food) dropped and this created a mass market.

No one knows for certain why Rowntree Trademarked the name Kit Kat, but in 1911 they did. Best I can tell, this was a common phrase. It might have referred to pastry chef, Christopher Catling, or it could refer to the Kit Cat Club. The Kit Cat Club was a group of Whigs who loved to meet (at Catlin's Tavern), discuss books, politics, and eat mutton pies... which also were apparently called Kit Cats.

Christopher “Kit” Catling fed the Kit Kat Club Mutton Pies called Kit Kats.

But I did find one source which said this club didn't exist until after WWI, which means it either didn't happen or time travel was involved.

There's a handful of other theories about the name Kit Kat, it might have been named after the clubs ceiling, but honestly, we don't know any of this for certain. Even the historians archivists at Nestle (the current owners of Kit Kat don't know all the details.)

Rowntree had the name long before they decided to do anything with it.

In the early 1900s Rowntree was in a tight spot. They were ahead of the game in Marketing but they were struggling product wise. By 1922, Cadbury was producing 20 times more chocolate than Rowntree and Rowntree couldn't match their competitor's prices. As Fitzgereld says in his book,

"Despite being soundly and economically managed, Rowntree was constantly unable to make 'even the minimum profit compatible with the well-being of the business'."

(This is a very dry book.)

They needed to make what's known as a "count line" or heavy confectionery. Something that had chocolate on the outside and something in the center. It would also be something that was more filling than plain chocolate.

Urban legend is that Kit Kat came about after a worker put a suggestion in a recommendation box for a snack that “a man could take to work in his pack”. It's unclear how much this suggestion influenced the creation of Kit Kat, because at this time Rowntree was looking for a way to create a high quality product that could be manufactured cheaply.

It's worth noting Rowntree took pride in their products, they saw themselves as high-end confectionery producers. In fact, even as they built a marketing department and worked on advertising their product there was push back from Joseph Rowntree who thought poster advertising was no respectable. In the late 1800s advertising was wordy. They explained the benefits of products. In 1919, when posters and newspaper ads became popular the board of directors feared they were appealing to

"the modern 'cinema-going type of mind rather than the dispassionate, more literary consumer.'"

Wow.

So in some ways Kit Kats were a gamble. Could Rowntree produce this cheap candy bar and still maintain their prestige as a higher end company? The good news was it only took a small initial investment to being production of the 'Wafer Crisp' line and in 1935 the board gave approval to move forward with it.

The process for making Kit Kats has been well documented by several sources. Cheddar Gadgets has a good video showing the process. Nestle Japan also has a series of videos showing the process as well.

In a nutshell, the most important part of the bar is the wafer, the recipe for which is a highly guarded secret. The wafers are cooked, cooled, covered in a mixture of chocolate and pressed together. Large molds are coated with a layer of chocolate before the wafers are added and another layer of chocolate is added to the top. The bars are then cooled, packaged, and shipped out.

It has been reported that the filing of Kit Kats are made of defective Kit Kats. This is only partially true. Most of the filling is just a chocolate mixture. It's less catchy, but more accurate, to say that defective Kit Kats are added back into the chocolate mixture that coats the wafers. Its really just a way to cut down on waste products. In at least one Japan factory wafers which are defective are recycled as animal feed at nearby farms. (With I was one of those animals)

Each bar of a Kit kat is called a "finger" standard Kit Kats are 4 fingers, though the number of fingers varies between varieties and countries. The most I've seen referenced is 12 fingers. (I only have 10 fingers.) They also come in different size fingers. Normal Kit Kats in Japan have 6 fingers. The two finger varieties are commonly sold in multi-packs around the world. But the special Japan flavors are smaller fingers than the normal American 2 finger kit kats.

Rowntree's Chocolate Crisps were launched in September 1935. It was not advertised, but it was a hit with the consumers. It was a big hit. Initially Rowntree estimated their profits in 1935 would be £80,000 (pound sterling), but after the introduction of Aero chocolate bar (an aerated chocolate) which they launched beside Kit Kat and Kit Kat, the figure was revised to £200,000. ($7.1m to $17.8m) [Measuring Worth.com]

In 1936 the British chocolate market was estimated to be around 700 tons per week. (36,400 tons per year) Rowntree's Chocolate Crisps production was running at about 80 tons, still with no real advertising support.

As the Chocolate Crisp grew in popularity leadership at Rowntree was worried that it's name was too generic and could be easily copied by other companies. Yet Chocolate Crisp was a familiar name and they didn't want to give that up completely. So the decision was made to change the name to Kit Kat Chocolate Crisp.

When the Chocolate Crisp was first advertised they targeted the snack market and used taglines like "The Biggest Little Meal" and "The Best Companion to a Cup of Tea!" The ads contained action pictures portraying happy people of all ages. With the name change to Kit Kat, the company began to use the word "break" in its' advertising.

"Give yourself a break at teatime" was the slogan introduced in 1939.

Sadly, just when the Kit Kat was really taking off, World War II came along.

World War II caused a lot of trouble for Rowntree. Milk, butter, sugar, oil, and other food supplies were rationed by the government. Food Ministry said confectionery companies also had to ration food supplies. This meant they didn't have the ingredients to continue producing Kit Kats. One tactic used during the war other companies stopped using fancy packaging so their products wouldn't be associated with luxury and they could pass themselves off as essential.

Rowntree decided to modify the Kit Kat formula so they could still produce during the war. The dropped "Chocolate Crisp" from the product name and changed the packaging from Kit Kat red to a dark blue. The company feared losing consumers over these changes, so each wrapper contained explanation text.

Because no milk can be obtained for chocolate manufacture, the Chocolate Crisp you knew in peace-time can no longer be made. Kit Kat is the nearest possible product at the present time.

The board felt that if they lost any good will, they could revert the title to Chocolate Crisp after the war and re-garner any support they had lost.

Yet for all their efforts, Rowntree was finally forced to stop making Kit Kats in 1945. The war had taken it's toll on the confectionery industry.

And that's why there's no Kit Kats today. Ha! Just kidding.

Rowntree was eager to start marketing Kit Kats following VE and VJ day in 1945, but supplies were still being rationed and were difficult to come by. The biggest supply issue was the milk needed for creating the milk chocolate. They tried to re-introduce milk chocolate Kit Kats, but in April 1946 they once again reverted to the war-time variety because the supplies just didn't exist.

Food rationing would remain in place for six full years following WWII.

It wasn't until 1954 that the shortages were officially over and Rowntree was finally able to create enough Kit Kats to meet demand. But the war had other long term consequences. The Ministry of Food had put more policies in place dictating claims that could be made in advertisements, images used on packaging, and requiring synthetic materials to be included on ingredient lists.

This meant companies couldn't make unverified health claims about their products in their ads. They couldn't put images of fruit on the packaging if fruit wasn't a major ingredient.

Rowntree was considering using a substitute fat called lecithin in the Kit Kat formula. If they increased the content from .4% to 1% the Kit Kat would taste the same and the company would save £100,000, but would there be backlash from the customers, now that they were required to put this information on the ingredient list?

(I have no idea how that one played out.)

Yet, Kit Kats continued to grow in popularity. After the war they began using the slogan "Have a Break, have a KitKat." Peter Rowntree was skeptical of using the word "break" but the board liked the double meaning of the word. It described the product, and associated it with rest and leisure.

By the 1970s Rowntree was selling Kit Kats in many countries around the world, but was still unable to "break" into the US market. They did some test-marketing in Greenbay, Wisconsin. And they ran TV ads in Toronto to gauge American feasibility. Finally, they gave up and sold the US trademark rights to Hershey. Hershey would now own and produce Kit Kats in the United States, as long as Hershey itself was not sold. (In which case the rights would return to Rowntree.)

Rowntree made a similar deal in Japan with a company Fujiya. The company would manufacture and distribute Kit Kats in Japan until 1988, when Rowntree was purchased by Nestle.

Now Nestle is a Swiss company that was officially formed in 1905 with the merger of two smaller Swiss companies which were both established in 1866. Today, Nestle is the largest food company in the world. They have around 447 factories and employ 339,000 people. (That's slightly less people than the entire population of Iceland.) (That is slightly more than the entire city of Santa Ana California.)

When Nestle purchased Rowntree they took over the manufacturing and distribution of Kit Kats in Japan, but they continued to honor the agreement with Hershey, which is why today Hershey still produces Kit Kats in the United States. And it's one reason Hershey wasn't sold in 2002.

But here I am, rambling on about history when you're really here to learn about Flavors.

The Flavors

The first Kit Kat flavor variant after the war came about in 1996 when Nestle introduced Kit Kat Orange in the United Kingdom. This was a popular experiment and prompted them to create Kit Kat Dark, and Kit Kat Mint.

As of 2020 in the United States Kit Kats are available in Milk, Dark, and White chocolate. Hershey has released a Duo Mint & Dark chocolate, Birthday Cake, Apple Pie, and will be releasing a Duo Mocha + Chocolate flavor this fall.

They've also released Raspberry creme for valentines day, lemon crisp for easter, pumpkin pie for fall, and witches brew for Halloween These all come in single finger variants

But all of this pales in comparison to the vast amount flavors of Kit Kat which have been introduced in Japan.

At the time of this recording it's likely that over 400 flavors of Japanese Kit Kat have existed. But there's no official list of flavors. The largest list of flavors I was able to find only had 220 entries and over the course of researching this video the site has gone offline and is now only available via the WayBack machine.

Personally I am hoping to compile a mostly complete list, but I can't do it alone. If you run across any new or exciting Kit Kat Flavors, I'd love to hear about them. Leave a comment for fill out the Kit Kat form at https://BlueCoffeePanda.com/kitkatform

Kit Kats first went on sale in Japan in 1973. And for the first 27 years sales were relatively unremarkable. There isn't much history worth noting until the 2000s. At least no one I could find was noting anything about. Which means all of these 400 flavors of Kit Kat have come in the last 20 years.

Souvenir KitKats

The first new flavor introduced was Strawberry. To make this flavor they mixed a finely ground powder of dehydrated strawberry juice into the chocolate. They decided to release this new variety in Hokkaido, the northern island of japan, at the beginning of strawberry season. It was a huge success. Both with the locals, but also with tourists. (Japanese Tourist)

In fact, it was such a big success that they realized this marketing strategy could be exploited further. They began to wonder, could they develop a special chocolate flavor for each province? Region? City? Could they make special location specific flavors? They wanted to make souvenir Kit Kats.

Souvenirs are really big in Japan. It's a cultural expectation to purchase gifts for friends, family, and even coworkers when you are traveling or going on a trip. It's called omiyage お土産. I'm told the concept is difficult to translate into English, because it's more than just a souvenir. Typically it's something that is locally produced or something that a region is famous for. It's also a gift that looks nice with fancy or elegant packaging.

While visiting Tokyo I stumbled across an Omiyage store quite by accident and was able to pick up eight different flavors of Kit Kat. The candy came in small cardboard boxes that looked nice. Gift worthy containers each containing 12 specialty two-fingered Kit Kat bars.

The regional branding is quite evident. The covers say "Tokyo Souvenir", "Tokai Hokuriku Souvenir", and "Shizuoka Kanto Souvenir". The flavors themselves are called things like "Shinshu Apple" and "Itohkyuemon Uji Hojicha."

Spurred on by this success with strawberry they produced orange, pineapple, and banana flavors. In 2003 Nestle hired a Japanese Pastry Chef to named Yasumasa Takagi to help create new flavors of Kit Kat. His first flavor was Passion-fruit which released in 2005. It typically takes around 6 months to develop and test new flavors.

Most of the flavors introduced are limited edition and only available for a season or two, but there are about 40 "core" flavors which are available year round. Around 20-30 flavors are introduced each year.

They've also created a bunch of very "high end" Kit Kats. The Sublime series has "Volcanic" Kit Kats, which claim

The flavors were discovered on the volcanic islands of Papua New Guinea (Karkar Island), Vanuatu (Malakula Island) and the Philippines (Mindanao Island). Takagi describes these KitKats as having the "taste of earth" and saying that each flavor represents a different volcanic island.

These Kit Kats come in a single long finger and can cost $5-8 per bar. The Coca Chocolate one, sweeted with cocoa seeds and 70% dark chocolate I had was really amazing, but I'm not going to be buying a lot of those.

You Will Surely Win

Perhaps you've heard that Kit Kats are also named well for the Japanese market. In Japan Kit Kats are called Kitto Katto キットカット. The name sounds very similar to きっと勝つ or Kittokatsu which translates to "Surely Win". Which could be "you will surely win" or "I will surely win" depending on context.

In the mid 00's (aughts) Nestle noticed there was a spike in Kit Kat sales every January, which coincided with "exam season" the time of year when all Japanese High School students would be taking exams and they realized people were buying this as a good luck charm or good luck gift for the students.

This was another marketing opportunity and Nestle seized it. They partnered with the Japanese Post office. Now the Japan post had been privatized in 2007. Had it still been government run, this likely wouldn't have been possible. But Nestle decided to make a special Kit Kat that could be mailed like a post card. These Kit Kats were sold at the post office. For Nestle, this mean that their product was now being sold at 20,000 new locations where there were no competing products. This marketing move won them first place in the Media Grand Prix at the 56th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in 2009. Between 2010 and 2018 Kit Kat sales in Japan increased by 50%.

Even today some Kit Kat flavors in Japan have space on the back for people to write notes.

These are the two most cited reasons why Kit Kats are so popular in Japan, but they don't fully explain the plethora of flavors. So I had to dig a little deeper.

I found an NPR morning show from 2010 which helped explain the Japanese phenomena of crazy flavors a bit better. In this interview Lynn Neary interviewed Tokyo Journalist, Lucy Craft and marketing expert David Marks. (Wow, do those sound like made up names or what?)

Today there are over 50,000 convenience stores in Japan. Many are located right across the street from each other. And the shops are tiny. So products are constantly competing to get on store shelves and to stay on shelves.

The shops don't have space for items that don't sell. To win shelf space candy, snack, and beverage producers need to create items which will look good to the shop owners and have potential to sell out quickly. This is also why so many flavors are limited editions. Flavors like soy-sauce are unlikely to have a lasting market so shops are not likely to want them in stock beyond the initial craze. This means many of the flavors are specifically made for short term sales. Make something crazy and hope that the convenience stores will pick up on it. Move on to the next one.

So that's Kit Kats. What they are. Where they came from. And why they are so popular in Japan. If you liked this video and are interested in learning more about Kit Kats and the flavors they come in, be sure to like, subscribe, and do all the other things I'm supposed to tell you to do.

You can find transcripts and links to all my sources at BlueCoffeePanda.com

Until next time.

Sources

Matcha KitKats!?!? What is Matcha? →