Hi. My name is Philip and I have a fake PhD in KitKat Studies.
Like you, I spend hours each day scouring the internet for information on KitKats, so you can imagine my excitement when I found the “World’s Largest KitKat®” on the Hershey web store.
This is a 2 pound KitKat, except that it’s also a scam. As my finger hovered over the “add to cart” button, I realized that this is not one giant KitKat, instead this is “two pounds of individually wrapped snack size KitKat Bars”
The fact that Hershey calls this pack of KitKats the World’s largest, raises several philosophical questions. Can a pack of KitKats count as a single KitKats? If so, what would prevent me from buying 4 or 8 pounds of KitKats, putting them in a pile, and declaring it the World’s Largest KitKat? This just sounds silly. But if that doesn’t count, then what really is the world’s largest KitKat?
In my research I discovered the KitKat size conspiracy goes even deeper. But we’ll get to that in a minute.
First I had to answer my initial question.
Surely I can buy two pounds of snack sized KitKats for less than $24.99… right?
Let’s find out. (Travel Montage)
A pound is 16 oz, so 2 pounds is 32 oz. Now, “normal” KitKat snack size packs come in 10.78 oz bags. With each snack size KitKat weighing in at around .5 oz. Doing a little bit of math, Three bags of KitKats adds up to 32.34oz, which is just over 2 pounds. So I bought 3 bags. I really wish I could monetize this channel. (Like and subscribe?) (Buy me a coffee?)
Each bag cost $4.79 and because it’s classified as a Food item, it wasn’t not taxed. This brought my total cost for 2 pounds of KitKats to $14.37. (Buy me a coffee?)
That’s $10.62 cheaper than the “world’s largest KitKat” and that’s doesn’t include shipping, another $8.95 From the Hershey Store. The only thing I’m missing out on is the giant KitKat wrapper.
Is the wrapper worth $10? Eh… maybe? It would make an awesome set piece or display item for someone who loves KitKats. The cardboard inside the wrapper is made to look like a 4-finger KitKat bar. But it’s still a $10 box.
The marketing on this product seems disingenuous for a few reasons, but this isn’t the only place that Hershey does something like this.
A “normal” 4-finger KitKat is naturally going to be larger than the smaller 2-finger snack size.
I measured them and you can even see the difference. While most KitKats are about 1 cm tall, the length and width of KitKat fingers varies between the different sizes. As you can see from this side by side comparison. These are two distinct sizes of KitKat.
Hershey also sells a King Size KitKat, which is an 8-finger KitKat Bar… except, once again, this isn’t entirely genuine. The King Size KitKat bar is actually two separate 4-finger bars in the same package. They aren’t even connected. The same is true for Hershey’s XL KitKat, which is a 12-finger KitKat, and, you guessed it, is simply three regular 4-finger KitKats all packaged in a single wrapper. Does this count as a single KitKat or three distinct KitKats?
If you count this XL KitKat as a single KitKat, it is the largest purchasable KitKat in America. It measures 94cm by 194cm and weighs 4.5 oz. It would take 8 of these XL KitKats to get a 2 pound KitKat. But it would also cost substantially less, even less than buying three snack size packs.
If you want to buy a 2 pound KitKat this seems to be your cheapest option. (Though 8 packs will give you more than 2 pounds.)
But what if you don’t count the XL KitKat as a single KitKat? Is the largest KitKat simply the regular 4-finger KitKat?
No! There is actually a KitKat that is larger. And that is the King Size Big Kat. The Big Kat is similar to the KitKat Chunky, which is sold by Nestle in other parts of the world. It’s made up of a single finger that is much taller, wider, and longer than the fingers of a regularly sized KitKat.
If you measure size by individual finger sizes, then the KitKat Big Kat is clearly the largest KitKat. [Tongue Twister Much?] Yet by weight, a Single KitKat Big Kat is exactly the same 1.5 oz of a regular 4-finger KitKat Bar, though based on my primitive measurements, I think it’s volume is actually a little bit smaller. #NeedFundingToDoMath But Hershey makes a King Size KitKat Big Kat, which is a two finger KitKat Big Kat Bars, and almost doubles a regular 4-finger KitKat by volume. #citationNeeded #NeedFundingToDoResearch
So depending on your definition of KitKat, either the XL KitKat or King Size KitKat Big Kat would be the Largest purchasable KitKat in America.*
[Assuming, of course, that purchasing multiple packs, a box, or a pallet of KitKats does not count as a single KitKat… A fact that might be contested by Hershey’s Marketing Team.]
I should mention that several chefs and KitKat enthusiasts have created extremely large KitKats. And you’re probably yelling at me because I haven’t mentioned those yet. But these are one-off creations, not something currently being produced or sold. And that is why I’ve mostly ignored them.
Perhaps most surprising to me in my research for this video I actually encountered a dozen different sizes of KitKat, depending on how you want to classify each “KitKat”.
In addition to the regular 4-finger KitKat, the accompanying King and XL sizes, and the 2 finger snack size KitKat, Hershey makes specialty 1-finger KitKats throughout the year, such as Pumpkin flavor and Gingerbread flavor. These single fingers are wider and taller than normal fingers, but they are also much shorter.
The KitKats in Japan recently shrunk as well. American snack size KitKats are about 67mm long, while the ones I purchased in Japan were only 52mm in length. But as of September 2020, 2-finger Japanese KitKats are now 43mm long, a full 17% smaller. Nestle says this change was made because customers were concerned about their sugar intake.
Here in the US, we can purchase “Mini” KitKats, which are half the size of the single-finger speciality KitKats, but don’t come individually wrapped. These “minis” differ from the Minis sold in Japan. The mini’s found in Japan are more like “KitKat balls”, more formless rounded cubes each measuring about 2cm in size.
And most recently the ultimate final form are Hershey’s new KitKat “Thins” which are about half the height of regular KitKats, though they maintain a more normal width and length.
I hope you’ve found some of this informative or at least a little bit entertaining. If so, consider subscribing or leaving a comment. And I’ll see you next time for more Japanese KitKat content.