KitKat is a chocolate bar created by Rowntree's of York, England. It is produced globally by Nestlé (which acquired Rowntree's in 1988),[1] except in the United States, where it is made under licence by the Hershey Company (an agreement Rowntree's first made with Hershey in 1970).[2][3]
Standard Kit Kat bars have two or four pieces, known as “fingers.” Each finger has three layers of wafer covered in a thin coating of chocolate. Each finger can be snapped from the bar separately. There are many flavours of Kit Kat, including milk, white and dark chocolate.
The original four-finger version of the bar was developed after a worker at Rowntree's York factory put a suggestion in the recommendation box for "a chocolate bar that a man could take to work in his pack up".[4] It was launched in September 1935 in the UK as Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp and the later two-finger version was launched in 1936. It was renamed Kit Kat Chocolate Crisp in 1937 and just Kit Kat after World War II.[5]
Since making its first television appearance in a British advert in 1958, the slogan for the Kit Kat in the UK and elsewhere has been "Have a break... have a Kit Kat".[5][6][7] Since 1986 in the US, the jingle used in television advertisements includes the phrase “Gimme a break, Gimme a break, Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar!"[8]