Origin and history of chocolate KitKat

British confectioner Joseph Rowntree (1836-1925) of Rowntree’s in York (UK) registered the product names Kit Kat and Kit Cat in the year 1911.

Kit Kat lay dormant as a concept until the 1920s when Rowntree’s first attributers the snappy name to a box of chocolates.

Joseph Rowntree, the son of Quaker grocer. He left school at fourteen, and started working for his father as an apprentice.

He joined his brother, Henry ten years later. Henry running a Cocoa, Chocolate and Chicory factory. 

Joseph took control after his brother died in 1883. The company quickly became an international business. 

During the early twentieth century, Rowntree introduced many new chocolate products but none were successful.

In 1935, Chocolate Crips was launched, under the name ‘Rowntree’s Chocolate Crisp’ and at a cost of 2d.

Manufacture continued into the 1930s. Eventually ‘Black Magic’ and ‘Dairy Box’ brands were introduced and Chocolate Crips was discontinued.

Introduction of the Chocolate Crisps as four finger bar followed a recommendation from a workers at York factory.

In 1937 it was renamed KitKat. It was the company’s most popular and successful chocolate candy.

In the 1930s, the Hershey Company bought rights to manufacture the KitKat bars in America.
Origin and history of chocolate KitKat