AROUND THE WORLD WITH THE MILKY WAY!

 

A growing sport for American candy enthusiasts is trying international variations of  our staple bars. As it does with Pringles, Japan takes the cake for the widest varieties of Kit Kat bars. However, Hong Kong is catching us to the land of the rising sun. Returning from a recent business trip, a colleague brought back bags of assorted Kit Kat varieties (strawberry, cheesecake and, most peculiar of all, cracker). 

The story of the Milky Way bar abroad, however, is a little more tangled and mundane at the same time, but interesting nonetheless. Introduced by Mars Incorporated in the United States in 1924, the Milky Way bar, with its gooey  caramel and nougat filling, soon became a staple of American confectionery . 

Eleven years later Milky Way made its English debut and subsequently made its way throughout Europe. Hence a variant of the Milky Way was formed that continues to this day. It is smaller than its American older brother and was stripped of the caramel component, making it lighter and less sticky. 

This incarnation of the iconic bar appears in the States as the 3 Musketeers bar, though it is hardly an exact replica. Firstly, in true American fashion, the 3 Musketeers bar is larger than the European Milky Way and the nougat is of a light chocolate shade while the filling of the international Milky Way bar has a marshmallow like appearance. Despite this, 3 Musketeers is among the lightest candy bars sold in the States. 

From here it gets complicated. If there is one thing Britons love more than caramel it is sugar and a British version of the American Milky Way was thus inevitable and, in fact, predated the British Milky Way by three years. It is known simply as Mars and it is, indeed, very much like its American Milky Way counterpart. Mars did appear  in the United States with the addition of toasted almonds (the use of caramel was off and on) but was discontinued in 2002 only to be revived as Snickers Almond (though it does survive in its original form in select outlets. 

And how did Canada fare in all of this? Well, our northern neighbors got both the 3 Musketeers and Mars, but no Milky Way bars are manufactured north of the border. Oh fudge...



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