For avid chocolate fans with yen to spare, KitKat Japan will be releasing special limited edition gold-coated KitKat bars later this year.
Select shops in the country will get to sell 500 limited edition single bars costing 2,016 yen ($16.41 based on exchange rate as of November 20) a piece. And the shine on the surface is not just food coloring: what makes each of these chocolates special is that they are hand wrapped with a genuine, edible gold leaf and was said to have a rich, bitter chocolate taste.
The product will be sold at chocolate boutiques in eight select department stores in Japan, from Tokyo to Fukuoka.
This new and limited variety of KitKat will join Nestle Japan's repertoire of more than 200 unique and interesting flavors and novelty KitKats like strawberry, wasabi and hot Japanese chili flavored chocolate fingers.
"In Japanese convenience stores, consumers are used to having new varieties all the time," Nestle Japan spokeswoman Melanie Kohli said.
But why do these various flavors get marketed only in the Japanese market? Because the Japanese's cultural values influenced the sales of the flavored products.
One such cultural influence is the Japanese cultural concept of omiyage. The word literally means "souvenir" but it has far more impact than a foreigner would think and is different from gift giving that is just as preeminent in Japanese culture.
It is customary to give omiyage whenever someone has been on a trip or is coming to and from different areas in Japan, as when one works in a certain prefecture and is about to come home after several months. In fact, all Japanese take this custom so seriously (it is bad form to forget to have an omiyage, even for foreign visitors with host families) that stores are full of conveniently prepared and nicely packaged goods that can be considered acceptable omiyage to buy in a pinch.
Sweets and delicious treats like KitKat therefore make for popular options, specifically those that are meant to represent a certain prefecture. Strawberry flavored KitKat for instance can be good omiyage if a person will be coming from Kyushu.
"Japan is the only place where you can have such a variety of KitKat flavours, something linked to that regional culture," Kohli said.
