Koikeya Karamucho – Strong Potato Chips Super Hot Chili
Bitter: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Salty: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sweet: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Umami: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰
Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Savory, sweet, umami
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Ruffled chips slightly less than crunchy
Ingredients: Potato, Palm Oil, Sugar, Vegetable Powder (onion, garlic), Salt, Monosodium Glutamate, Spice and Herb (white pepper powder, red pepper powder), Soy Sauce Powder (soy beans, wheat, water), Natural Flavor, Citric Acid, Silicon Dioxide, Colour (paprika color, caramel color), Sodium Citrate, Aspartame, Artificial Flavor, Disodium Hydrogen Phosphate, Disodium Guanylate, Potassium Chloride, Disodium Inosinate.
Karamucho is a brand of Japanese potato chips produced by Koikeya, a Japanese snack food company. Currently Japan’s second largest potato chip company they began in 1958 when the owner tasted fried potato chips at an izakaya for the first time and fell in love, deciding to make it his business. The company is known for exciting and unique flavors including some it only makes available in certain regions. When I saw the “super hot chili” on this bag I knew I had to give it a try.
Interestingly even though this a Japanese brand according to the bag these chips were produced in Vietnam. I’m not sure if that’s common for Japanese chips in Japan or if they just do that for the ones they send to the USA for export, but another Japanese snack that I’ve recently tried, Daikichi, is made in Thailand. The seasoning blend doesn’t scream “super hot chili” to me from the ingredients label. It includes onions and garlic, always welcome, but the only spicy element I see is under the “spice and herb” category which contains white pepper powder and red pepper powder, and that’s several items down on the list. What these do have is loads of umami-rich ingredients. There’s MSG along with the complimentary glutamates of disodium guanylate and disodium inosinate. These also have soy sauce powder which appears to be from a high quality soy sauce with ingredients of only soybeans, wheat, and water. A little paprika for color rounds things out. The chips don’t smell very spicy but instead have a deep savory aroma. The texture is ruffled with a crisp lesser than typical Ruffles chips.
The promises of “super hot chili” on the bag are not honored by the contents. If these had been at least close to the various Flamin’ Hot versions of various US chips and snacks I’d have cut Koikeya a little bit of slack, those aren’t super hot either, but at least they’d have tried. Instead these are flat-out mild. There’s not a strong chili flavor though there is a little bit of fruity flavor present. What these are, however, are super umami-packed and delicious because of it. The remind me a bit of the All Dressed chips that we can find here – a combination of tangy, umami, sweet, and a tiny hint of spice. The combo of sweet garlicky umami also reminds me of the Nong Phu Crispy Rice Balls. The flavor on these also develops with a rich umami aftertaste. If they’d labeled these as “savory bbq” I feel like it would have been more accurate.
Despite the lack of heat these are still delicious chips and I’d recommend checking them out if you ever come across a bag of them, just don’t expect them to light your mouth afire.
