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Anorak News | Give Us A Break

Give Us A Break

by | 19th, February 2004

‘THE British love affair with chocolate – like everything to do with Britons’ love lives – seems curious to the rest of the world.

Now available in knickers

Chocolate has always been regarded as something of an indulgence here. Indeed, the actual chocolate content of the British variety is so small that the bureaucratic busybodies of Brussels fail to accept it as chocolate at all.

Even the stuff that we call chocolate has always been carefully rationed. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the concept of the chocolate-biscuit bar, as exemplified by the Kit-Kat.

Its concept is simple: a biscuit covered (i.e. thinly disguised) in chocolate.

This proved so popular that the rival Club biscuit advertised its presence with the slogan: ‘If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our Club.”

If you like a lot of chocolate, why not just buy a bar of chocolate instead? Because that would be wrong.

Anyway, times change, and today’s obese populace require more bangs for their buck. Youngsters feel no shame in consuming chocolate bars by the dozen. And the Guardian reports that Kit-Kat sales have suffered, and its days may be numbered.

Or rather, the Kit-Kat as we know it. For Nestlé-Rowntree is looking to spice up the nation’s chocolate affair by introducing varieties such as curry. It worked for pizzas, but can it save the Kit-Kat?

The consequences of failure are too awful to contemplate, because the other option is lemon cheesecake flavour, which is apparently very popular in Japan.

Of course, when the Japanese “take a break” they do a lot of odd things. Eating cheesecake Kit-Kats is one of them. Buying used underwear from vending machines is another.

Let’s hope the chocolate boffins aren’t thinking too far outside the box.’



Posted: 19th, February 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink