Nestlé has launched the KitKat Chocolatory Cacao Fruit Chocolate exclusively in Japan, its first product to use a chocolate made entirely from the cacao fruit.
The launch follows Nestlé’s announcement in July, which saw the company discover a new production method that uses dried, powdered white cacao pulp as a substitute for sugar in chocolate.
As a result, the crispy KitKat wafer is coated with a 70% dark chocolate that uses the beans and pulp from the cacao fruit as its only ingredients, meaning no refined sugar is added.
Cacao pulp surrounds the cocoa beans, and is soft, sweet and white in colour. Nestlé said around 70% of the cacao pulp is usually thrown away on-site and until now it has not been used as an ingredient to naturally sweeten chocolate.
Earlier this year, Patrice Bula, head of strategic business units, marketing and sales at Nestlé, said: “We’re proud to bring chocolate lovers a new chocolate made entirely from the cacao fruit without adding refined sugar. This is a real innovation which uses the natural sweetness of the cocoa pulp to provide a pure, novel chocolate experience.”
The exclusive confectionery will be available in Japan for online purchase and in the KitKat Chocolatory boutiques in Tokyo, Osaka, Kawasaki and Hiroshima. They will be available individually or as part of an assortment box with other KitKat Chocolatory Sublime bars.
Nestlé plans to launch products sweetened with cacao pulp in other countries next year, through some of its most popular confectionery brands.
Earlier this year Swiss chocolatier Barry Callebaut unveiled a new range of products that made use of the entire cacao fruit, including its beans, peel as well as its fruity pulp and juice.
This followed Barry Callebaut’s development of ruby chocolate in 2017, in which Nestlé then became the first company to sell a product made from the new chocolate, as it introduced a ruby version of its KitKat bars in Japan and South Korea.
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