The idea of designing your own creation bodes well with the public, so it is no surprise when Kit Kat opened their pop up store in Westfield Stratford City they followed the same concept.

The process included choosing the base in either milk, dark or white chocolate, next selecting up to 3 flavours from a choice of 16 signature flavours, from delicious meringues, pretzels, mini marshmallows to lots more.  Finally, you could create your own bespoke packaging with your name and a personalised message (from a list).

Unfortunately, this Chocolatory was less Willy Wonka and more a factory.  The look of the store was clinical with the contrast of the crisp white and bold red, yes I know that’s the brand but chocolate is meant to be fun right?  The clinical process continues on the inside where you use a touch screen to ‘create your own break.’ Follow a couple of steps and you’re done, nothing creative or pleasurable like you were actually designing your very own personalised chocolate bar, more like you were just processing some photos.

You can then watch the chocolate bars being made by 3 assistants who solemnly get on with the task.  The glass screen created a feeling of being in school, like when the teacher conducts an experiment and you watch on rather than a chocolate making shop where assistants look engrossed in their work and interact with onlookers, sharing their passion and expertise of chocolate.

£7 and 90 mins later your chocolate bar is ready.  Wait, what? £7 of your money and 90 minutes of your time?  First off, a standard 4 finger bar costs 60p for the whole thing, but with the personalised price you were paying £1.75 per finger.  The store was based on a good location, I guess 90mins wouldn’t have been that bad but I had already had my lunch and done all my shopping so I wasn’t going to loiter about in a shopping centre for another hour and a half waiting for a bar of chocolate, no matter how unique it was.

I was enticed by some of the special edition Kit Kat bars they had on display such as; sticky toffee popcorn, almond & salted caramel brittle, and black forest gateau.  There were an additional two signature creations, from Michelin-starred chef Michael O’Hare the chilli & mint and a dandelion & burdock.  These came at half the price of the personalised ones.

All in all it didn’t live up to the anticipation you’d expect from the words; ‘create your own chocolate bar.’  What would in fact have been so much more better is if Kit Kat opened a ‘limited edition’ pop up store to display some of the most interesting and unusual flavours from around the world.  Not only will that get people queuing to see all the wonderful flavours, the different packages alone make it quite an exhibition but also to give British people the opportunity to taste some sensational flavours.  The store would become an colourful, cultural hub celebrating the brand, with people talking, liking and sharing pics on social networks.  That’s the kind of hype a pop up should create.

Kit Kat has produced more flavours unlike any other chocolate brand, Japan alone have sold 300 limited-edition seasonal and regional Kit Kats since 2000 with flavours like Sakura Matcha Latte, white chocolate and wasabi, Hokkaido Melon with Mascarpone Cheese.  Whereas the most Kit Kat has produced for the British public is peanut butter or hazel nut (which I loved by the way) but do give us something a bit more daring!