The four-fingered snack is a combination of its trademark crispy wafer on a milk chocolate base, topped with creamy white chocolate with caramel notes.
KitKat experiences
Jemma Handley, senior brand manager, KitKat, told Confectionery News, it launched a limited edition of KitKat Gold in Australia in 2018 and due to its popularity decided to add it to the range.
“It is named Gold because of the golden colour of the caramelised white chocolate,” she said.
“We launched a limited edition of KitKat Gold in Australia first because they came up with the concept.”
Alex Gonnella, marketing director, confectionery UK & Ireland, Nestlé, added the company has had an amazing response to the KitKat experiences it has introduced over the last few years, including Matcha in February 2019 and Ruby, which was introduced in April 2018.
“We are excited to bring KitKat Gold to the UK. What’s more, it’s just one of the exciting plans we have for KitKat and our confectionery portfolio in general in 2020, so watch this space,” added Gonnella.
In September last year, Nestlé also introduced the KitKat Chocolatory. The Chocolatory, which ran in store at John Lewis and York’s Chocolate Story until the end of December 2019, enabled consumers to explore nearly 1,500 exotic flavour combinations.
Handcrafted KitKats
From the end of this month, customers in the UK will be able to order handcrafted KitKats for a limited time only through the KitKat Chocolatory web shop.
The KitKat Chocolatory web shop marks Nestlé’s first move into a direct-to-consumer offering for its UK confectionery business and includes a range of experiences including creating your own KitKat from a range of options in special, personalised packaging.
At the heart of the concept is the eight-finger ‘Create Your Break’ which offers 1,500 flavour combinations from four chocolate varieties; milk, dark, white and ruby, and ingredients including shortbread pieces, salted caramel chunks, honeycomb and rose petals.
The range also boasts six special edition flavours including ‘Zingtastic Gin and Tonic’ and ‘Springtime in Japan’ while a further eight ‘Best of British’ KitKat fingers inspired by Great British flavours like Dandelion and Burdock, Marmalade, Cherry Bakewell and Eton Mess.
“Every KitKat sold through the Chocolatory website will be individually hand-crafted by expert chocolatiers in the UK and the eight-finger ‘Create Your Break’ bars will be made to order based on the choices of shoppers from the range of ingredients available,” added Handley.
“Each bar features one of four varieties of chocolate and three different ingredients.”
Popularity
Speaking about how KitKat has retained its core audience over all these years, despite competition from other confectionery manufacturers Handley, said KitKat was launched in the 1930s and it believes one of the reasons it has remained popular for so long is because it has been able to evolve.
“From the introduction of KitKat Chunky 20 years ago, to now offering luxury, handcrafted chocolates through the chocolatory, the brand has consistently been able to positively surprise people,” she said, “With more announcements to come in the near future.”
