The Kit-Kat brand is famous in Japan for the number of different flavors of the chocolate-coated cookie treat that they produced. The flavors in the United States have stayed relatively simple, but that’s maybe not for the reasons you might think.
Weird Kit-Kat flavors in Japan
- Green tea
- Sweet potato
- Strawberry cheesecake
- Lemon
- Sweet corn
- Wasabi
- Grape
- Sakura
- Choco banana
- Apple vinegar
Globally, the Kit-Kat brand is owned by Nestle. In the US, the American chocolate company, Hershey, owns the rights – when Nestle bought the rights from Rowntree in 1988, Hershey’s already had the contract for the US market, and they weren’t about to give it up.
After a trip to the Hershey’s Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania (which isn’t actually an incorporated place) this week, we can report that Hershey might be catching on.
After we participated in a ‘Make Your Own Candybar’ adventure (which was a little cool, but not nearly as cool as it sounds – you’re just selecting options on a computer screen), we spent some time wandering around the chocolate store, taking a chocolate tour, and eating a chocolate s’more in the company’s flagship theme park. As we were walking toward the register to exercise our capitalist rights (spending tons of money on stuff we don’t need), a woman with a clipboard stopped us and asked us if we liked Kit-Kats.
“Uhh YES!”
Then she asked us if we liked milk chocolate and white chocolate.
“Uhh….YES and YES!”
Then she asked us if we were between 24 and 60
“3 for 3, yes!”
Just like Dorothy in Oz, we said the catch phrase three-times (“Yes”) and were transported through a vortex to a wonderful place where we were given the opportunity to try and give feedback on new flavors that Kit-Kat is experimenting with.
Between each flavor, we had to take a bite of cracker and swallow some water to ‘cleanse our pallets.’ The numbers on the flavors indicated that there were quite a few being tested, but we only got to try 4. They were being tested as ‘holiday flavors,’ and through context clues that holiday seemed to be Valentine’s Day.
The start was a “blondie” flavor, trying to emulate the brownies vanilla-flavored cousin. It was pretty good, but maybe a little sweet and mouthy compared to a normal Kit-Kat.
Next out came 3 flavors on a tray. One was a blondie covered in milk chocolate, one was a fudge brownie flavor, and one was a raspberry cheesecake flavor.
My favorite was the raspberry cheesecake flavor I think, followed by the milk-chocolate-blondie (probably because it tasted most familiar). Janna really liked the blondie, but has a beef with pink foods (get it?) so wasn’t fond of the raspberry cheesecake flavor.
Hershey’s Chocolate World is a cool place. It’s a little bit of a tourist trap, but a fun piece of Americana that was well worth the detour. There are a few overpriced items, but all-in-all it’s a surprisingly well-priced tourist trap. But this experience gave us a fantastic memory from our trip – which is what we’re really looking for.
Next stop: Pittsburgh. Steel City, here we come!