In Britain the number of flavours available to KitKat fans can be counted on the fingers of two hands. In Japan the varieties on sale at any given time stretch to dozens, including purple sweet potato, edamame bean and wasabi, and owner Nestlé is opening a new factory to cater to demand.
Opening on Tuesday in the western city of Himeji, the first new KitKat factory to open in Japan in 26 years will specialise in producing small quantities of a wide variety of premium versions of the snack, including strawberry and maple as well as pistachio and raspberry combinations.
Launched 82 years ago in the UK as the ideal accompaniment to a cup of tea, the world’s third largest chocolate brand is No1 in Japan. While sales at home have fallen in recent years, they have risen by 50% in Japan since 2010, as KitKat has won over a growing number of fans thanks to a combination of marketing nous and serendipity.
The bar first went on sale there in 1973, and was instantly helped by the lucky coincidence that its name closely resembles kitto katsu, a phrase meaning “you will surely win” in Japanese.
In Japan’s gift-obsessed culture, the snack has been adopted as a way to encourage school kids ahead of their exams. Special postable versions and packaging decorated with slogans such as “do your best” have helped, so that about half the 600,000 students sitting exams each year have munched on a lucky KitKat.
The creation of more than 300 flavours since 2004 is also part of cashing in on the tradition of omiyage, in which family members, colleagues and friends bring back gifts for each other from holidays or work trips. There are about 30 dedicated regional flavours of KitKat as well as seasonal specialities, such as cherry blossom, as well as one-off versions in packaging resembling a bottle of sake, Mt Fuji or cheesecake.
“Innovative flavours are not uncommon in Japan, but KitKat stands out for its volume of Japan-centric flavours,” says Marcia Mogelonsky, global food and drink analyst at market research firm Mintel. “The collectible flavours of the products, which leverage some extremely specific Japanese flavours and food ways, are one of the major reasons for its success.”
Nestlé may have gone to court to try to protect the trademark on its four-fingered bars in Europe, but in Japan KitKats mainly come in chunky two-fingered form or as single fingers or chunks. This year they launched a sushi-shaped version.
The launch of KitKat specialist Chocolatory boutiques, overseen by celebrity patissier Yasumasa Takagi, have given the brand an even more upmarket image in Japan. Punters can create a personalised KitKat from a range of 10,000 possible combinations and buy packages of speciality flavours for as much as 3,500 yen (£24), or 10 times the cost of a regular bag
Fancy packaging and cheffy twists make the snack a more appropriate gift than might be appreciated in the UK.
The development of unusual flavours in Japan, which kicked off with a green tea version in 2004, has also made KitKats a popular buy for tourists from all over Asia as well as Europe.
Japan is currently in the middle of a tourism spending boom. Visitors’ spending on sweets, including chocolate, alone has more than tripled over the past four years to 131bn yen in 2016, according to the country’s environment ministry and KitKat is determined to get a bite of that.
The Japanese business began to supply some of its unusual flavours, including matcha green tea, to South Korea for the first time last year as it tried to cash in on the snack’s popularity with tourists.
There are now Chocalatory outlets in Melbourne, Australia, and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, with more planned around the world this year. A pop-up opened in the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, east London, last year.
But it’s unlikely that melon and mascarpone or sweet red bean KitKat will be widely on sale in the UK any time soon. In the early noughties, KitKat tried to revive falling sales by bringing in experimental flavours including Christmas pudding, tiramisu and an Atkins diet friendly low-carb bar.
The experiment was a sticky mess. In just two years, KitKat’s sales in the UK dived 18%. Now the company sticks to a handful of safe bets including milk chocolate, dark chocolate, peanut butter and cookie dough. Of course it’s always possible to dunk one of those in some green tea for a more Japanese experience.
