Black thunder – Japan’s best chocolate bar? Part 1.
I recently wrote a blog about Crunky chocolate, explaining how I would grab for it if my preferred snack was out of stock. Crunky is a worthy snack choice, but there is another which will always win my heart! Another one, which I will grab for if both snacks are available. An option which frequently comes out with fun, unique collaborations which are always flavourful and tasty. Today I will explain which Japanese chocolate bar takes the crown as my all-time favourite. How did it become so popular?
The year is 1994; the Yuraku Confectionery company is a small company based in Aichi with only 20 employees. The company had already tried a product named ChocoNuts 3; sadly, the product failed to make waves and was pulled very shortly after its debut. The company wanted to appeal to children, and presumably ChocoNuts 1 and 2 also failed to make waves. The company needed something better, something that could be marketed to university students. Something that would gain popularity via word of mouth and save on marketing.
Black Thunder’s creation had to meet three components: first, the company wanted a heavy texture, something that would create a crunch. They decided to use dark cocoa cookie pieces mixed with crispy Japanese rice, which guaranteed something different with every bite! Second, they wanted the chocolate to have a rich flavour, so dark milk chocolate was used; the surface was kept uneven, adding to the desire for a heavy texture. Lastly, the product needed to be a reasonable price. When black thunder launched, the price was only 30 yen before tax! However, due to inflation, the price has shifted a little; however, the price is still reasonable.
Black Thunder’s name came from the colour of its cookies; Black alluded to the idea of dark chocolate. At the time, Meiji Chocolate was very popular in Japan, and their dark chocolate was bittersweet. Yuraku wanted to play it safe and jumped on the current trend for dark chocolate. As for the thunder part, the choice was made to name it after the Japanese god of lightning. The product gained the catchphrase “Delicious taste in a flash of lightning” in 2003.
Black Thunder first launched onto the market to a muted reaction; just like the previous product, Black Thunder was slow to take off. By 2000, sales of Black Thunder were still lacklustre, but this time the company decided to persevere and kept the product on the shelves. At this time, promotion via word of mouth was still being relied on, perhaps contributing to the slow sales. The packaging was changed in 2000 and again in 2003 when the choice to change the romaji lettering to katakana was made. A new slogan was added, “A big hit with young women”; even so, sales still moved slowly.
Things started to shift for Black Thunder in 2004. Originally, only 7-Eleven stores in Kanto sold the product, but the company started to realise there was untapped potential with expansion. Very soon, the product became available more widely, and surges in interest were noted in Kyushu. By the end of 2005, sales hit over 900,000 units after the company made the product available in more regions across Japan. The product became the company's best-selling product, and in 2006 it was picked up by Shirashi-san Co-op. The product became available online for the first time in 2006, where it started gaining popularity with university students, which had been the initial target market. In 2008, the company sponsored the gymnastics team sent across to represent Japan at the Beijing Olympics. The team went on to win a silver medal, but the promotion was highly beneficial for the company. Brand recognition was jumping, and finally black thunder was taking its place as a well-recognised product. By 2010, sales hit 130 million units.
In 2019, the company celebrated its 25th anniversary and introduced a mascot named Black Thunder Matt. Black Thunder Matt is an android who sports two Black Thunder bars as eyebrows and has the handy power of shooting Black Thunder bars at hungry citizens! A very helpful power unless you have diabetes or are on a diet.
To this day, Black Thunder bars are made in three main factories across Japan, and sales online are doing very well, especially in Singapore and Malaysia. So, this is the story of Black Thunder, a product that hit the market to almost no applause, but the company never gave up. Eventually, with small changes and tweaks, their perseverance was rewarded. I, for one, am glad that they never gave up, as Black Thunder is an amazing product which I love to enjoy. So, let’s explore some of the fun variations and forms in which you can enjoy Black Thunder! In two blog posts, I will write about the variations and fun collaborations Black Thunder has made!
