Kit Kat Wars: Canada VS the US

A month or so ago I had a customer from the US come in. We frequently get Americans because of the hotel and conference centre across the street from us, and our proximity to the US border. This particular customer asked where he could buy Kit Kat bars. I told him there was a gas station a block away. He went on to say that he was buying them to taste test them against American Kit Kats. This surprised me, as I assumed they'd be the same. The customer informed me that he was told they taste different and that the Canadian version is supposedly better.

I, of course, had to find this out for myself. I went on Facebook and asked my American friends to mail me Kit Kat bars so I could conduct my own research. Nugs rose to the occasion and offered to send me some for my birthday. She also mailed me a bag of Dunkin' Donuts coffee - which I haven't tasted yet, but I will soon. Thanks! Pretty awesome birthday gifts - chocolate and coffee.

I got the package in the mail last Thursday and took it with me to the house I dogsit at. On my way there I stopped to get some groceries, and a Canadian Kit Kat bar. Nugs mailed me a bag of mini Kit Kats, which was awesome and evil (evil because I pretty much ate the whole bag in three days). I bought a regular sized bar here - but it still worked.

Canadian full sized chocolate bar.

American bag of snack sized bars.

Before tasting them I decided to see if I could figure out the difference by looking at the list of ingredients. That's when I discovered the truth! When I flipped over the bag of mini bars I noticed this:

Kit Kats in the US are made by the Hershey Company. This confused me because in Canada....

They're made by Nestle. I did some quick internet research and learned that Nestle makes Kit Kats all over the world, except for in the US - where Hershey had an agreement with the original British chocolate maker way back when. So before even trying them I knew that's why they taste different.

The packaging is different too. They don't even use the same font for the Logo. I notice these things.

Ignoring the size of the bars, they looked pretty similar. One may have been a slightly darker shade of brown, but not that noticeable. Overall I found the Canadian one had a creamier taste, while the American one had the distinct Hershey's milk chocolate flavour - which isn't a bad thing, but definitely different.

A few days later I was waiting for a train in Toronto and I stopped in a newsstand for some snacks and a magazine when I saw this:

A white chocolate Kit Kat! When I flipped it over it said it was made by The Hershey Company - so it must have been imported. I've heard of there being other flavours, but I've never actually seen one here. I really had no basis of comparison for this one, but I had to buy it since I was doing this whole Kit Kat experiment.

So there you have it folks - my Kit Kat taste test. I had no reason for doing this other than boredom and curiosity.