Kit Kat Week Part 2 - How Many Variety Of Kit Kat Already Exist

It's not really clear how many different  flavours of Kit Kats actually exist. Since Japan started this trend, a few other countries have joined in creating a handful of fun flavours. None of these fun flavours have come close to matching the variety and strangeness of Japan. Today it's fairly common to find Kit Kat bars with coffee flavours, caramel, peanut butter and many other fairly safe flavours. Kit Kat Japan has opened a few doors, but the floodgates have never opened completely outside of Japan.

It's estimated that there are anywhere from two to three hundred variety of Kit Kat in Japan alone. You might be able to add fifty or so variety that have been released in the rest of the world. No one seems to have an official list, and some flavours are similar, but not exactly the same as well (for example there's a special variety of strawberry Kit Kat that's made in Japan which is completely different than the Western strawberry Kit Kat).

One of the things many western Kit Kat varieties miss outside of Japan, is a tie to the local culture. We're missing many flavours that really represent particular cultures or regions of different countries. This is what has allowed Japan to go out  further with this idea, they are feverishly proud of Japanese culture and the products that come out of Japan. Japanese people tend to love the idea that something represents something in their culture, no matter how specific or detailed. They're also seems to be this idea that the product doesn't have to taste good to be a success. It's more about how well it represents the Japanese event or area than how great it actually tastes.

It's also safe to say that the Japanese pallet is a little different than the Western pallet, so maybe a soya sauce chocolate bar works for them.  To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why Japanese people love these Kit Kat variety, but they obviously do because they keep making them. I know for western countries we look at these flavours as being strange and exotic, but I think we need to fix this. What we need to do is look into our own culture and find the flavours that might be exotic to others,  and we need to make them in Kit Kat bar form.

CC