Where does the name ‘KitKat’ come from?
Ideal Saint Martin’s candy, indispensable in your swim bag and a lovely snack in your desk drawer: KitKat. In Japan, KitKat is even so popular that all kinds of bizarre flavors of the popular bar are made. Have you ever wondered where that strange name actually comes from?
Fortunately, there are clever people who delve into these kinds of existential questions. And the answer: there are several possible explanations for that strange name. To begin with: KitKat may refer to a society, the Kit-Cat. A private club in London where Sir Godfrey Knellers exhibited paintings in the eighteenth century. There was not much room for art; the ceilings were low and the rooms small. So artists had to submit work of limited size, the so-called Kit-Cat-size.
Magazine
It could also be that the chocolate bar was named after the magazine KitKat, which was published in Pennsylvania in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was a magazine about housekeeping; an annual subscription cost only fifty cents.
Student association
No, no: KitKat is an abbreviation. For Keep In Touch, Kappa Alpha Theta. Joseph Rowntree’s wife, the inventor of KitKat, was a member of a student association called Kappa Alpha Thetha.
Book club
According to Nestlé, the producer of KitKat, the name was officially registered by Joseph Rowntree. When he made a box of chocolates for the first time, KitKat was already written on the packaging. But they have another explanation: it was named after Christopher Catling, which is the name of a book club Joseph belonged to. Hey, wait: that might just be the correct explanation!
Also read:
- Recipe: divine creamy KitKat-Rolo cake
- KitKat launches a new flavor: KitKat Gold
- Bounty is the least favorite Celebrations chocolate
Source: Reader’s Digest
