Calbee Black Pepper Potato Crisps: There are two Japanese versions of Pringles that I've seen on the shelves from major brands Calbee and YBC. Both come in familiar tennis-tube packaging and feature a hyperbolic paraboloid-shaped stackable chip. The differences are minor: the Japanese chips are a bit thicker and tend to taste more of fried potato than of their powdered flavoring. These black pepper flavored chips have a decent spiciness to them and are otherwise fairly expected – neither good nor bad. I recently learned t... (read more) 3.0/5.0
japanese inegaya calbee black pepper potato crisps 3.0
Calbee 大人の ポテリッチ カマンベールベーコン味 Camembert Bacon Flavor Potato Chips: According to the press release for this limited edition flavor, Calbee introduced a line of ポテリッチ "Potato Rich" chips for adults in October 2020 partially in response to the trend of increased drinking at home due to the pandemic – these chips are meant to pair well with alcohol. The combination of meat with cheese was surprising to me, and as far as I know is not actually something that's done here in Japan. The actual flavor is a combination of bacon and camembert, and you can definitely... (read more) 3.0/5.0
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Calbee Fried Chicken Potato Chips: Thickly cut, ridged potato chips whose seasoning is reminiscent of fried batter and chicken bouillon with a deeply savory flavor. It tastes like when you lick your fingers after eating fried chicken, which is it say you get the sort of greasy flavor of fried foods with a hint of meat, rather than full on chicken flavor. 3.0/5.0
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Calbee Takoyaki Balls: Puffed corn snacks coated in a sweet and savory seasoning blend that tastes just like takoyaki sauce (sort of like Japanese Bulldog sauce or Worcestershire sauce, deep in umami). In other words, it doesn't taste like seafood but just the sauce that typically coats the normally octopus-filled balls. Undoubtedly a substantial amount of MSG. Purchased from Uwajimaya, but actually a product of Thailand. 3.0/5.0
uwajimaya japanese calbee takoyaki balls 3.0
Calbee Mentaiko cod roe potato crisps: These are Calbee branded potato crisps seemingly designed to compete directly with Pringles, as they come stacked in a similarly-shaped tube. The potato chips have a light seasoning on them but mostly taste of plain pringles, with a little bit of chili flavoring. Too plain to be interesting, although from the packaging, it looked to be a special Japanese flavor worth trying. 2.5/5.0
chips japanese calbee mentaiko cod roe potato crisps 2.5
Calbee Pizza Potato Chips: These are junk food potato chips I see commonly at convenience stores in Japan. (Calbee is kind of like the Japanese version of Frito-Lay.) Though the packaging shows pepperoni pizza, it doesn't have a meaty flavor to it and instead tastes oddly sweet, like too-sweet tomato sauce. The predominant flavor is sweet potato, but there's also a little bit of zingy cheddar flavor, but not much else that is reminiscent of pizza (for example, no oregano seasoning as far as I could tell). The chip... (read more) 2.5/5.0
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