When it comes to stuffing our faces, we're all for food that does the hard work for us. Enter Pocky , the little biscuit stick that comes pre-dipped in chocolate , strawberry and 50 other flavors we're too lazy to type out.
Chances are you've had this Japanese treat before, but there's a good chance you didn't know what is was called. The 50-year-old brand is making a major push in the United States to change that, selling now in Costco, Target, Walmart and many major supermarkets.
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The makers of Pocky are making a serious marketing push as well. This fall they unveiled a digital billboard in New York City's Times Square and The Pocky Truck Tour has been zipping around Southern California and San Francisco handing out deliciousness for all. To get you fully prepared for the Pocky invasion, here are some fun facts to crunch into:
The name "Pocky" comes from the sound its creators said it makes when you eat it: “Pokkin.” When launched in 1966, each individual stick was hand dipped in chocolate before the machines took over. The idea to keep part of the biscuit un-dipped to keep fingers clean came from kushi katsu, a popular Japanese skewered fried pork. Pocky Day began on Nov. 11, 1999. On the Japanese calendar, 1999 is the 11th year of Heisei, so Nov. 11, 1999, translates to 11-11-11. And all those ones look like Pocky sticks. Got it? Pocky holds the Guinness World Record on Twitter as the most-tweeted brand name within a 24-hour period on Nov. 11, 2013 with 3,710,044 tweets. The Pocky truck tour has given out more than 1.5 million boxes of Pocky since it hit the road in 2013. There are more than 50 Pocky flavors, including Strawberry, Chocolate Banana, Cookies and Cream, Green Tea and Almond Crush. Our favorite? Whichever one we're currently chewing. Related: Smart Cookies--5 Business Lessons Leaders Can Learn From Girl Scouts
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