Kit Kat Flavours Around the World

In Britain a Kit Kat is a Kit Kat: four fingers, milk chocolate, a red wrapper, and an advertising line that has not changed since 1957. Cross a border and the same bar turns into something else entirely — matcha in Japan, Milo in Australia, lemon crisp in Canada, birthday cake in the United States.

The bar is the same idea everywhere. What changes is who is allowed to make it, and what each country decided a Kit Kat should taste of.
 

A Bar Built for a Lunch Pack

Kit Kat started in York. In 1935 Rowntree's launched a wafer bar called Chocolate Crisp after a worker suggested making a chocolate bar that a man could take to work in his pack. Two years later it was renamed Kit Kat Chocolate Crisp, borrowing the name of an 18th-century London club whose pastry cook, Christopher Cat, served mutton pies called Kit Kats.

During the Second World War milk shortages forced Rowntree's to switch to dark chocolate and a blue wrapper, from 1942 until 1947. The red came back afterwards, and so did the milk chocolate.
 

Have a Break: Seventy Years of Kit Kat Adverts

In May 1957 Donald Gilles, a copywriter at the agency J Walter Thompson in London, wrote the line every British reader can finish: have a break, have a Kit Kat. It was built on the factory tea break of the 1950s — the elevenses pause when a four-finger bar could be shared out or saved for later — and the first television adverts followed in 1958. Almost seventy years on, the line has never been dropped.

What kept it alive was how far the idea could stretch. In 1987 an advert called No Rest for the Wicked showed a devil and an angel each taking a break from their day jobs. In 1989 came the one many people still describe from memory: a wildlife photographer waits all day at the zoo for the pandas to appear, gives up, sits down with a Kit Kat — and only then do the pandas come out, on roller skates. In 1993 the break moved to an airport, with a customs officer and his sniffer dog stopping for a Kit Kat in the Nothing to Declare channel. Around 2001 the campaign had celebrities, including Lemmy from Motorhead, 'taking a break' from their own public image.

America got its own earworm. In 1986 the agency DDB launched the Gimme a Break jingle — copy by Ken Shuldman, music by Michael A. Levine — with its instruction to break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar. A University of Cincinnati researcher later listed it among the songs most likely to get stuck in your head, which is roughly what it was designed to do. Two countries, two very different adverts, one bar.
 

Why an American Kit Kat Is Made by Hershey

In 1988 Nestlé bought Rowntree's and with it Kit Kat almost everywhere in the world — but not in the United States. Since 1970 Hershey has held the licence to make Kit Kat there, under an agreement Nestlé inherited and has to honour. So the American Kit Kat is a Hershey product, made to Hershey's own recipes, and it is the only place on earth where that is true.

That is why the American flavours feel so different from everyone else's. Hershey's line-up leans towards dessert flavours, and Sweet and Glory stocks the Kit Kat Vanilla and Birthday Cake bars from the US range. For more on why Hershey's chocolate tastes the way it does, see why American chocolate tastes different.
 

Japan: Hundreds of Flavours and an Exam-Day Charm

Nowhere has run with Kit Kat like Japan, which has seen more than three hundred flavours since 2000. Part of the reason is the name. Said aloud in Japanese, Kit Kat sounds close to kitto katsu, roughly 'you will surely win', and the bar became a good-luck gift for students sitting exams. A sweet that doubles as a charm can carry far more variety than a sweet that is just a snack.

Japanese Kit Kats also come in a different format. They are usually sold as bags of individually wrapped minis rather than single bars, which suits gifting and sharing and is why they travel so well as an import. The flavours rotate constantly, with regional and seasonal editions that appear and vanish within months.

Sweet and Glory brings Japanese Kit Kats in two or three times a year, so the range changes with each shipment. Recent flavours include Matcha, Strawberry, Dark Cacao, Gold Salted Caramel, Milk Tea, Chocolate Orange and Gold — check the Japanese range for what is in now, and see the Japanese candy guide for the wider category.
 

Australia: Milo, Milkybar and Chunky Experiments

Australia's Kit Kats are made by Nestlé and lean on brands Australians grew up with. The best example is Milo — the malted chocolate drink created in Sydney in 1934 — turned into a Chunky bar. Milkybar Kit Kat does the same with Nestlé's white chocolate, and Aero Mint folds a second Nestlé brand into the wafer.

The Sweet and Glory Australian line-up includes Kit Kat Gold, Chunky Milo, Milkybar, Chunky Aero Mint, Cookie Dough and Mint Cookies and Cream, in single bars and larger sharing blocks. See the Australian sweets guide for the rest of the range.
 

Canada: Crisp, Crumble and Rolo

Canada's Kit Kats are Nestlé too, and the Canadian range is the one that most often borrows from other sweets. Chunky Rolo brings Rolo's caramel to the wafer, Pops Smarties crosses two Nestlé brands in a bite-sized format, and Lemon Crisp is the flavour British visitors least expect.

From Canada, Sweet and Glory stocks Caramel Crisp, Cookie Crumble, Hazelnut Crunch, Lemon Crisp, Chunky Rolo, Chunky Extreme Chocolate and Kit Kat Pops Smarties. The Canadian candy guide covers the rest of the Canadian range.
 

Stocking Kit Kats from Around the World

The strongest display is the simplest: one shelf, grouped by country, with the flag above each section. Customers already know what a Kit Kat is, so the job of the display is only to show them they have never tried this one. A mixed selection from three or four countries also makes an easy gift, which is why the range works well in the run-up to Christmas.

Japanese minis suit gifting and pick-and-choose displays; Australian and Canadian bars suit the till; the American bars suit anyone curious about how different the same name can taste. Browse the full Kit Kat range for current availability.

No minimum order. Free first parcel on orders over £150 ex VAT (additional boxes £7.10 each). Free pallet delivery over £650 ex VAT. Dispatched from Manchester. Create a free account to browse and order.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Japan have so many Kit Kat flavours? Partly luck, literally. In Japanese, Kit Kat sounds close to kitto katsu, meaning roughly 'you will surely win', so it became a popular good-luck gift for students before exams. That gave Nestlé Japan a reason to treat the bar as a gift rather than a snack, and gifts sell on novelty, regional specialities and limited editions. More than three hundred flavours have appeared in Japan since 2000.

What are the weirdest Kit Kat flavours? Japan holds most of the records, with flavours such as wasabi, sake, soy sauce and sweet potato among its limited editions. Elsewhere the surprises are tamer but still unexpected to a British shopper: lemon crisp in Canada, Milo in Australia, and birthday cake and churro in the United States.

Why is an American Kit Kat different from a British one? Because a different company makes it. Hershey has held the licence to make Kit Kat in the United States since 1970, and kept it when Nestlé bought Rowntree's in 1988. Everywhere else Kit Kat is a Nestlé bar. American Kit Kats are made to Hershey's recipes, so the chocolate tastes noticeably different.

Where does the name Kit Kat come from? From the Kit-Cat Club, an 18th-century London club whose pastry cook, Christopher Cat, served mutton pies known as Kit Kats. Rowntree's launched the bar in York in 1935 as Chocolate Crisp and renamed it Kit Kat Chocolate Crisp in 1937.

Who came up with 'Have a break, have a Kit Kat'? Donald Gilles, a copywriter at J Walter Thompson in London, in May 1957. The line was inspired by the factory tea break of the 1950s, and the first TV adverts using it aired in 1958. It is one of the longest-running slogans in British advertising and has never been replaced.

Can you buy Japanese Kit Kats in the UK? Not in supermarkets, but they are imported. Sweet and Glory brings Japanese Kit Kats in two or three times a year, alongside Australian, Canadian and American flavours, with no minimum order. Create a free account to browse and order.

Related guides: Japanese candy wholesale guide · Australian sweets wholesale guide · Canadian candy wholesale guide · Hershey's UK complete guide · Christmas stocking fillers

Sources

Wikipedia - Kit Kat (Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp 1935; renamed 1937; Kit-Cat Club; wartime blue wrapper 1942-1947; JWT slogan 1957; Nestlé 1988; Hershey US licence 1970; Japan, 300+ flavours since 2000)
Milo, Australia - history (Thomas Mayne, Sydney, 1934)
Creative Review - The history of Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat (Donald Gilles, JWT, May 1957; 1958 TV; 1987 and 1989 adverts)
Wikipedia - Kit Kats in the United States (Gimme a Break jingle, DDB, 1986)

Written by Sharon Wilson, Sweet and Glory. Sweet and Glory has imported American and world confectionery into the UK from Trafford Park, Manchester, since 2015.