Calbee Kataage Potato Chips Black Pepper — 65g

Thick-cut potato chips from Japan, fried one kettle at a time at a low temperature, which is why they come out hard rather than crisp. Think of a kettle chip, then make it harder. The black pepper gives a peppery kick rather than chilli heat. If you like a chip you can hear, this is the one.

If "hard potato chips" sounds like a strange thing to want, give them one bag before you decide: writing them off as just hard potatoes and then changing your mind is the usual arc with these. And have them with a beer. In Japan this style of crisp isn't a party snack, it's something you put beside a drink, which is exactly how Calbee sells the range: the crisp to have beside a film or alongside a drink.

It's a genuine household name in Japan, not a niche flavour: on Monolog, a Japanese review site that only counts ratings from verified purchasers, this bag has over 13,000 ratings — and that is this flavour specifically, not the wider Kataage range.

On the pack: 堅あげポテト ブラックペッパー (kata-age poteto burakku peppaa). That's the name printed across the front of the bag, if you're checking it against the one you had in Japan.

What you're getting

• Which Calbee this is: the kataage line, the thick-cut, slow-fried one. Not the everyday Calbee potato chips, and not Jagarico or Jagabee.
• Texture: hard and loud rather than light and snappy; it's the point of the product, not a side effect. The chips themselves are small, which is worth knowing if you're picturing an Australian crisp.
• Taste: sharp salt underneath, and a pepper you can smell when the bag opens and notice in the mouth, but not chilli-hot. Japan sells a separate, hotter version for people who want that.
• Is it the good one?: it's the one people argue about. Plenty call it the best in the kataage range; about as many think the pepper is overdone. You'll know which camp you're in quickly.
• Allergens: contains wheat and soy, and it is made on shared equipment (see below). Read the pack's own label before you rely on ours.

Two things to know before you order. These are genuinely hard: sharp enough to catch your gums, so they aren't a chip to eat in a hurry, and the pack's own guidance puts them at about four years and up. And the seasoning carries two animal-derived ingredients, a pork-containing yeast extract and a seasoned animal fat, so it isn't suitable if you avoid pork or don't eat meat.

It's made on shared equipment. The Japanese pack says the same line also runs products containing egg, milk, prawn and crab. If any of those is a problem for you, treat this as a shared-line product.

On size and price: it's a 65g bag, well under an Australian share bag, and it costs more per gram than a supermarket chip. This is a Japan-made import, not the Calbee packets in Coles and Woolworths: those are a different range at a different price. It's also not the hotter black-pepper bag in the same range: Calbee sells that one in Japan as 鬼旨 (oni-uma).