If you stroll through the real or virtual aisles of a Japanese store, you might find Kit Kats in flavors like salt lemon, caramel pudding, whole grain biscuit, melon, and milk tea. Good luck finding those at Target or Walmart in the US.
Kit Kat aficionados know that to find the most interesting varieties, you have to shop outside of the US or go to specialty stores that carry imported goods. Why? Because Kit Kat is distributed by different companies in the United States and internationally. In the US, Kit Kat is sold by Hershey. In the rest of the world, Nestlé’s in charge.
Kit Kat is the biggest brand in Nestlé’s global confectionary business, according to Chris O’Donnell, who leads Kit Kat for Nestlé globally. “It’s [a] key priority for us,” he said. “We see huge growth potential [for] Kit Kat.” Hershey’s top brand, on the other hand, is Reese’s.
Nestlé has 13 Kit Kat manufacturing sites across the world, O’Donnell said, and uses different recipes for different areas. When Kit Kat develops new flavors, most of them limited-time offers, it’s looking to appeal to local tastes.
In Japan, seasonal flavors have been especially successful.
Globally, most consumers are interested in “crowd-pleasing flavors,” like caramel, O’Donnell said. But in Japan, they “have a very wide appreciation for a much broader flavor profile.”
In 2000, Nestlé launched a strawberry Kit Kat in the country. It was a hit, and since then, the Japanese team has regularly developed seasonal flavors — like chestnut and sweet potato — in addition to regional flavors, like wasabi and roasted tea, only available in certain areas. These offerings are often bought as travel gifts or souvenirs, creating a market unto itself. Over the past few decades, Kit Kat Japan has launched hundreds of flavors.
Just popping by to say “Fuck Nestlé!”… That is all.
Obligatory FUCK NESTLE
Neat info, but Nestlé still sucks.
Like, I was mildly interested, until I was very disgusted.
Fuck Nestle.
Not missing much. They all still taste like child slavery.
Yes, fuck Nestle, but also fuck Hershey. Nestle finds new and innovative ways to be evil, but Hershey is just old-fashioned slave labor and anticompetitive market capture.
Or you know, go to the Chinese, Korean, or Japanese market near you and find a few there.
Just picked up a bag of milk tea and chestunt Kit Kats the other day.
Fuck Nestle anyway so who cares where they are and aren’t sold.
still tastes like child slavery
I was ready for a feel good read, just to pass the time. Then NESTLE popped up, God they suck. So much for trying new kitkats, no skin off my back.
I’ve noticed them doing more flavors in the US as limited releases. There was a churro one recently. Hopefully the trend continues and some stuff becomes permanent.
That churro one was good too. I pick up the Asian Kit-kats from Asian markets around my city when I stock up on other supplies and they’re fun sometimes.
I really wish we could de-clickbait-ify the title.
Aside from the description having the answer, I’m just going to pretend it’s an onion article.
With the answer being something like “the US doesn’t deserve it” or “people will buy it anyway (and the health crisis is bad enough without new delicious flavors causing regulators to be further on their case), whereas in other countries they need to work a little harder to make sales (they’re a bit too healthy)”
“Think of it like ration chocolate, if it tasted too good you might eat it before you need to” one historian added.
I’m. Just gonna say you may actually be able to find these flavors in the US if you happen to visit Asian centric grocery stores.
That’s in the article, second paragraph, first sentence.
I like that on Lemmy, you now don’t even have to click the link to actually read the article, and people still don’t do even that before making a stupid comment that is addressed by the article.
Depends on how you’re viewing Lemmy. And more importantly, I’m not sure why this rates such a vitriolic comment.
On both the standard web page and through Sync, it shows the article text. But on any format, you can click the little link and it will take you to the full article.
And I’m sorry dude, but it’s the internet. If you feel called out over little criticism of your unwillingness to read an article before commenting, that’s a you problem. It’s hardly “vitriolic.” We can and should try and make Lemmy better.
You don’t have to placate me. It shows part of the text and that depends on the setting you have set. Some articles don’t show at all because of my pihole or other settings on my phone. You made an assumption. And while I didn’t read the whole article, I literally just added my two cents which is kind of what platforms like this are here for.
Amazon also has a lot of flavors.
Fuck, and I can’t say this enough, Nestle.
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Anyone know which company handles them in Canada? Cause flavours here also seem boring
Not sure but I rarely see any new flavours when I’m in Canada and ended up ordering some online from Japan
