The vegan KitKats are likely to cost more this time round.

Vegan chocolate lovers can rejoice! Nestlé’s highly-sought after vegan KitKat bars are coming back to the UK.

The KitKat V which has been pegged as one of the biggest launches of a vegan alternative of a major confectionery brand made its debut last year.

It took chocolate experts in Nestlé’s confectionery research and development two years to develop the vegan version.

While the bar features KitKat’s iconic wafer, it uses a rice-based formula as a milk substitute.

According to Louise Barrett, head of the Nestle Confectionery Product Technology Center in York, the experts sampled many non-dairy alternatives including oats, soy and almond before settling on a rice-based formula that mimicked the same creamy texture of the original.

 “Taste was a key factor when developing the plant-based chocolate for our new vegan KitKat,” Barrett said at the time.

“We used our expertise in ingredients, together with a test and learn approach, to create a delicious vegan alternative to our original chocolate KitKat.”

Aside from the UK, the Swiss giant intends to roll out the vegan chocolate across 14 other European countries.

Corinne Gabler is Nestle’s head of confectionery for Europe. She revealed in an interview: “We have four in 10 consumers saying they are interested to move to a more plant-based diet.

“It could be a significant market in the confectionery area.”

Likely to cost more

It is likely that KitKat V is going to cost more than the regular version this year – a fact that could dampen the zest for many.

The food giant explained that it is more expensive to produce the vegan version due to pricier ingredients and the need for rigorous measures to make sure no traces of dairy leach on to the production lines.

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