Nestle to Change KitKat Recipe in Europe to Make It Crispier

(Bloomberg) — Nestle SA is changing its recipe for KitKat bars across Europe to make them crispier and add a “hazelnut tone.” But it’s not because cocoa prices are too high, according to the Swiss food giant.

The changes to one of the world’s most popular chocolate bars — planned for September 2027 across most of Europe — are designed to attract consumers who wouldn’t have turned to a KitKat for their sweet treats before.

“We won’t reduce the cocoa share but we will add a ‘third level’ to KitKat, that gives a more complex level of taste,” Rouven Lochmuller, global brand manager for KitKat, said Tuesday at Nestle’s annual media event in Vevey, Switzerland.

For a long time, Nestle thought taste preferences for milk chocolate — the kind that surrounds the wafers in a standard KitKat — contradicted those of dark chocolate lovers, Lochmuller said. The change in recipe will show that this is not the case, and the taste buds of both groups can be accommodated in a single product, he added.

Britain, US

For UK consumers, nothing will change as British tastes run more to “burned caramel” and the recipe is “already perfect,” said Liberato Milo, Nestle’s head of confectionery and snacking.

In the US, KitKat is made and marketed by Hershey Co. Earlier this year, Hershey said it would adjust the recipe for KitKat to give it “a creamier taste and texture” in 2027.

In recent years, chocolate makers have had to contend with record cocoa price inflation, which has led to surging costs for chocolate-hungry consumers at supermarket checkouts. It has also prompted some producers to lower the amount of cocoa in their products.

Swiss chocolate maker Barry Callebaut AG previously warned that geopolitical turmoil and higher energy prices still cloud the outlook for a chocolate market that’s already absorbed price increases of about 50% over the past five years.

Still, earlier this month, Nestle Chief Executive Officer Philipp Navratil said coffee and cocoa commodity price inflation is easing.

Nestle’s previous attempts to change KitKat haven’t always been a success. It launched KitKat V, a plant-based version, after two years of development and used a rice-based formula as a milk substitute. But it cost more than a regular bar and has since been discontinued in most countries.

–With assistance from Stuart Biggs.

(Updates with Hershey US plans in sixth paragraph)

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