Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Fascinating Fruity World Of Hi-Chew Candy

Biting into a Hi-Chew candy is an experience. As someone who loves all candies, believe me when I tell you Hi-Chew is in a league of its own when it comes to chewy candy, thanks to a special sugar crystal control technology that the Hi-Chew team has been developing for years. Each intensely fruity piece of Hi-Chew is exceptionally chewy, long-lasting and has a unique texture that’s a mix of Starburst, chewing gum and taffy.

Though it has a soft texture, it features a surprisingly satisfying resistance as you bite into it, one that stays firm until you continue to enjoy the candy. The texture then transforms into a delightfully pliable texture that provides a lasting experience. The texture strikes a perfect balance —not overly hard, not too sticky — making it an addictive candy if you’re a texture person.

Each piece features a double-layer of flavor allowing for the real fruit flavor to maximize and release as you chew. This distinct texture of Hi-Chew candy is what sets it apart from other candies, and the fact that it comes in over 30 flavors in the U.S. (from Strawberry, Green Apple, and Mango to Kiwi, Açaí, and Sweet & Sour Watermelon), and has debuted in over 200 flavors in total world wide, makes it all the more alluring.

When it comes to flavors, Hi-Chew’s research and development meticulously studies their key demographics, whether in Asia or America, to innovate in the flavor department. The R&D team discusses current trends in the food industry including flavors or ingredients that are popular and how that would translate into new HI-CHEW flavors.

“As preferences continue to grow and change, we continue to make unique flavors, while staying true to the palette,” says Teruhiro “Terry” Kawabe, Chief Representative for the USA & President & CEO, Morinaga America, Inc. “The R&D team is very experienced in flavor discovering and testing. Before launching any new flavors, we round up multiple flavor and texture tests during the product development process to ensure we carefully take all feedback into improvement for the next phase. We take pride in our true-to-flavor taste and are dedicated to the details to ensure the flavors are authentic, just like our consumers expect.”

The history of this beloved candy began with HI-CHEW founder, Taichiro Morinaga, who moved to America at age 23. According to Terry, “a good samaritan offered him a piece of candy — a magical treat that he had never experienced during his impoverished youth.”

It was during Morinaga’s time in the U.S. that he learned techniques of Western confectionery manufacturing while in Oakland, California. After he honed his hard-won candy-crafting skills in the Bay Area, Morinaga returned to his home country of Japan and started selling candy from a simple push cart. The sweets were such a hit that he was able to open his own store in Tokyo: The Morinaga Western Confectionery Shop.

The concept for Hi-Chew was first created in 1975 when Morinaga sought to combat the Japanese taboo of taking food out of your mouth in public by creating an edible chewing gum. He combined chewy caramel with fruit flavors to create the Chewlet, which would ultimately become known as Hi-Chew. Fast forward to 2008, the spirit of Taichiro Morinaga returned to the Sunshine State, where Morinaga America, Inc. was established.

After continued growth and expansion, Morinaga America Foods (MAF) opened its first United States manufacturing facility in North Carolina in 2015 to help keep up with the growing demand in the U.S. market.

Though originally Hi-Chew distribution in the U.S. was limited and the majority of sales came from West Coast cities, it didn’t take long for its popularity to catch on. Terry recalls pouring Hi-Chew at one of his first investor meetings in the U.S. on the table for sampling as he always did in Japan. “The buyers ate all of the candy before the meeting was over,” he remembers. “I did not expect this and was immediately excited by how much they enjoyed the candy. I made sure to provide bags of Hi-Chew for the buyers to bring home to their families.”

Around 2010, sales for Hi-Chew were booming in Salt Lake City. “We believe missionaries missed Hi-Chew after their time in Japan, as it was not carried at stores in the city, and started to ask stores to carry their new favorite candy so that they can buy the candy anytime,” explains Terry. “The appetite for Hi-Chew continued to grow, with significant demand taking over the city. This exciting phenomenon encouraged me to change the pipeline from the Asian distribution to mainstream U.S. candy distribution.”

And when it came to baseball? Hi-Chew was a home-run (pun intended). Within the Major Baseball League, Japanese players would be chewing Hi-Chew in the dugout, providing a new, national stage for the candy brand.

“Our team started to provide Japanese players with HI-CHEW to gain more attention from the core American demographic. Through this attention, partnerships with Major League Baseball teams grew and sales orders from Walgreens and CVS started to roll in following.”

To-date, Hi-Chew has long been the best-selling soft candy in Japan and continues to see year-over-year growth throughout other parts of Asia and in the United States.

I sat down with Teruhiro “Terry” Kawabe, Chief Representative for the USA & President & CEO, Morinaga America, Inc., to talk about Hi-Chew’s history, research and development, the American demographic and more. Here’s what he had to say.

How has Hi-Chew evolved and adapted its product offerings to cater to the preferences of the American consumer?

U.S. flavors are tailored for the American palette. The R&D team uses detailed research into consumer preferences, trends and a comprehensive flavor-making process to develop authentic true-to-flavor offerings. This allows us to offer exotic flavors such as Kiwi, Açaí and Dragon Fruit which aren’t commonly found in other fruity, chewy candy brands.

Hi-Chew also values consumer input from American consumers. The brand conducts annual surveys with our devoted Chew Crew to ask about new flavor preferences. These results have helped to be a driver for new product development, with fan-requested flavors from a 2020 Chew Crew survey making their debut in the 2022 launch of Fantasy Mix. The new flavors, Blue Hawaii and Rainbow Sherbet, rated the highest among non-fruit flavors fans were hoping to enjoy one day. It was incredibly important to our team to make this mix a reality for consumers.

How does Hi-Chew approach the development of new flavors? Can you walk us through the process from concept to final product?

Our goal is to create new products that our brand fans are truly looking for. With that in mind, we take submissions from our Chew Crew members across email and social media and file them away for when the R&D team is ready to begin the development process.

Our team comes together and brainstorms which flavors continue to follow our true-to-flavor mission. We conduct qualitative research to see which flavors resonate with consumers. We then create the new product offering and host a tasting panel to ensure that we are spot-on with the flavor profiles. Once aligned, the final product or mix is created.

We are proud that our flavors are a result of customer requests.

Can you share some insights into the research and development efforts involved in creating unique and innovative flavors for Hi-Chew?

Both Hi-Chew’s core fruity flavors and non-traditional novel flavors are popular amongst consumers. The 2022 launch of Fantasy Mix and Infrusions was a huge success and proved our efforts in flavor study. Besides flavors, our R&D team is also keen to develop new, fun candy textures to entice our brand fans and meet their demand and desire.Hi-Chew Infrusions, which includes pockets of flavor in each chewlet, is the perfect example.

What kind of feedback or input does Hi-Chew consider when refining or introducing new flavors? How does consumer feedback play a role in the flavor development strategy?

We want our brand fans to always be a part of our product development process. As mentioned above, we conduct qualitative research to see which flavors resonate with consumers. We then create the new product offering and host a tasting panel to ensure that we are spot-on with the flavor profiles.

This feedback has led us to the launch of many beloved flavors including Sweet & Sour Watermelon, Açaí and Juicy Peach.