Calbee goes spicy with two new potato chip flavors — Thai tom yum kung and Sichuan-style tofu

Some spicy new potato chip flavors are hitting Japan, but they’ll only be available for a month or so.

Japanese snack maker Calbee has recently released two new potato chip flavors, and it looks like they could add quite a bit of zest to your snack life. The two flavors, tom yum kung and sichuan-style mapo, both based on popular Asian dishes, certainly sound like they would go extremely well with a cold beer.

Here’s the Tom Yum Kung flavor, based on the Thai soup that has become quite popular in Japan in recent years. Calbee supposedly put in considerable effort to get the balance between spicy and sour just right, and also added powdered cilantro to recreate the unique flavor of the soup.

The other sichuan-style mapo chips come in the flavor of mapo tofu, a spicy tofu dish that has long been a favorite in Japan (although what we have in Japan is probably not nearly as hot as the original version). Here, Calbee has added the flavor of douchi and Chinese pepper to simulate the spicy taste of the dish.

The two flavors will be available exclusively at convenience stores across Japan until early April, so you may want to grab a couple of bags if you happen to come across the chips during that time. After all, these spicy chips should be perfect for early spring get-togethers and flower viewing parties, right?

Source: Nikkei press release, Calbee website via Entabe

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© Japan Today