Pocky: the chocolate stick snack born from a messy problem

Ezaki Glico was founded in 1922 in Osaka, Japan by Riichi Ezaki. The company's first product was Glico Caramel, a nutritious candy containing glycogen extracted from oysters. The company grew to become one of Japan's largest confectionery manufacturers. The company's product development philosophy centered on creating innovative, health-conscious snacks. Popular products included Pretz (launched 1963) and a range of chocolate confections.

In 1966, Glico launched Pocky. The original version, called Chocotek, was a chocolate-coated biscuit stick inspired by kushikatsu, a Japanese deep-fried skewered dish. But the original design had a problem: the chocolate coating covered the entire stick, getting on consumers' fingers. Glico developer Yoshiaki Koma solved the problem by leaving a small section at one end of the biscuit stick uncoated, creating a handle that kept fingers clean. The design was patented in 1969. The name was changed to Pocky in the second year, from 'pokin', Japanese for the sound of snapping a biscuit.

Pocky became a global hit. By 1970, Glico opened a factory in Thailand for Asian demand. The product entered Europe in the 1980s as Mikado, Canada in 1987, China in 1995, and the US in 2003. In 2020, Pocky was certified by Guinness World Records as the largest chocolate-coated biscuit brand. The exposed biscuit handle — a fix for a messy problem — became one of the most recognizable snack designs in the world, and November 11 (11/11, resembling Pocky sticks) was declared Pocky Day.