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KitKats taste like your school crush sending you a love note during maths class. They are an exceptional chocolate bar, four fingers of pure delectation.

We all know what these little sensational fingers are made of, don't we? Chocolate and wafer – a simple, winning formula. But hold on. What's inside the wafer? What binds the crispy, sugary delight that tickles us after we've bitten through the milk chocolate exterior?

Well, we have the answer: it's crushed up KitKats.

Sound the alarm! What is this unadulterated genius? KitKats are the movie Inception , but in chocolate bar form. The four-fingered bars are as meta as can be.

A vending machine classic

(Image: Reuters)

It's puzzling that we didn't know sooner. The treat, made by Nestle , was named one of the "most influential" chocolate bar of all time by Time Magazine . Over the years, we've seen the snack in more than 200 flavours.

But it's only recently that people have found out the secret to the KitKat filling. Many have assumed it's just a different type of chocolate – the texture is softer, smoother. The colour is lighter. Did you ever ponder a ganache?

Nestle vaguely describes the centre as a “smooth and creamy chocolayer”.

The reason Nestle uses the crumbly chocolate for its sandwiched centre is a good one, too. Quality assurance technicians on the production line are tasked with removing substandard bars. They may have too many bubbles, for instance, or other imperfections that mar the appearance, but not the taste.

KitKats are treasure chests of wonder

(Image: Getty)

Rather than throwing these KitKats away, they're mashed up into a fine paste and redistributed in the form of the sensual filling.

The process, however, is a little perplexing when you sit down and really think about it. When you start to break it down.

As Mental Floss importantly notes: "If all KitKats contain the remains of imperfect KitKats, and not all KitKats are perfect, then every KitKat that gets recycled contains the remains of older KitKats, which contained older KitKats, which contained older KitKats...

"How far back does that actually go?!"

Oh dear. We need a break after all that (sorry). But it is like a maths question, isn't it? An upsetting one.

We'll ask Nestle and try to find out...

In the meantime, here's a fun fact: in India, you can get three-fingered KitKats. Astonishing. They taste the same as two or four-fingered bars.