Nestlé / 20th century
Nestlé, Japan and the story of an acquired taste
1:24 / A short film by Chirag SpeaksWatch on YouTube
Why do some tastes feel like home while others feel unfamiliar? This early film explores a widely circulated account of Nestle using coffee-flavored sweets to build familiarity in Japan. It raises a useful question about memory and habit, while the historical explanation needs more care than a short story can give it.
The question to take with you
What memories does someone bring to a product before they ever try to choose it?
A closer look at the history
A case-study account, with limits to what we can establish.
Nestle's Japanese company history records the expansion of Nescafe and domestic production beginning in 1966, following coffee import liberalization in 1961. Japan's coffee market already had its own history.
The coffee-candy explanation in the film is a widely repeated marketing anecdote. The company history linked here does not establish that it caused Japan's coffee-market growth. Treat that causal account as unverified.
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