Kit Kat

Kit Kat is a chocolate bar created by Rowntree's of York, England. It is produced globally by Nestlé (which acquired Rowntree's in 1988), except in the United States, where it is made under licence by the H. B. Reese Candy Company, a division of the Hershey Company (an agreement Rowntree's first made with Hershey in 1970).

Standard Kit Kat bars have two or four pieces, known as “fingers.” Each finger has three layers of wafer covered in a thin coating of chocolate. Each finger can be snapped from the bar separately. There are many flavours of Kit Kat, including milk, white, and dark chocolate.

The original four-finger version of the bar was developed after a worker at Rowntree's York factory put a suggestion in the recommendation box for "a chocolate bar that a man could take to work in his pack up". It was launched in September 1935 in the UK as Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp, and the later two-finger version was launched in 1936. It was renamed Kit Kat Chocolate Crisp in 1937, and just Kit Kat after World War II.

Since making its first television appearance in a British commercial in 1958, the slogan for the Kit Kat in the UK and elsewhere has been "Have a break... have a Kit Kat". Since 1986 in the US, the jingle used in television advertisements includes the phrase “Gimme a break, Gimme a break, Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar!"

Use of the name Kit Kat or Kit Cat for a type of food goes back to the 18th century, when mutton pies known as Kit Kats were served at meetings of the political Kit-Cat Club in London owned by pastry chef Christopher Cat.

The origins of what is now known as the Kit Kat brand go back to 1911, when Rowntree's trademarked the terms Kit Cat and Kit Kat. The names were not used immediately and Kit Kat first appeared in the 1920s, when Rowntree's launched a brand of boxed chocolates entitled Kit Cat. This continued into the 1930s, when Rowntree's shifted focus and production onto its Black Magic and Dairy Box brands. With the promotion of alternative products, the Kit Cat brand decreased and was eventually discontinued. The original four-finger bar was developed after a worker at Rowntree's York Factory put a suggestion in a recommendation box for a snack that "a man could take to work in his pack". The bar was officially launched in September 1935, under the title of Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp (priced at 2d), and was sold in London and throughout southern England.

Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp was renamed as Kit Kat Chocolate Crisp in 1937. The colour scheme and first flavour variation to the brand came in 1942, owing to World War II, when food shortages prompted an alteration in the recipe. The flavour of Kit Kat was changed to dark chocolate; the packaging abandoned its Chocolate Crisp title, and was coloured blue. After the war the name became Kit Kat, with the original milk chocolate recipe and red packaging.

Following its success in the United Kingdom, in the 1940s, Kit Kat was exported to Canada, South Africa, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. In 1957, Donald Gilles, the executive at JWT London, created the iconic advertising line "Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat". The brand further expanded in the 1970s when Rowntree created a new distribution factory in Germany to meet European demand and established agreements to distribute the brand in the US through the Hershey company, and in Japan through Fujiya.