Calbee – Hot Garlic Shrimp Chips

Bitter: 🟡🟡○○○

Salty: 🟡🟡🟡🟡○

Sour/Tangy:🟡○○○○

Sweet: 🟡🟡○○○

Umami: 🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡

Heat: 🟡○○○○○○○○○

Quick Flavor Notes: Dried shrimp, garlic, umami

Recommended: Yes

Texture: Light and crispy

Ingredients: Wheat Flour, Palm Oil, Shrimp, Starch (Corn, Tapioca), Hot & Garlic Seasoning (Sugar, Salt, Soy Sauce Powder, Dextrose, Flavor Enhancers [Monosodium Glutamate, Disodium 5′-Ribonucleotides], Maltodextrin, Spices, Garlic Powder, Yeast Extract, Citric Acid, Natural & Artificial Flavors, Paprika Oleoresin [Color], Capsicum Extract), Salt, Sugar, Sodium Bicarbonate, Ammonium Chloride, Monosodium Glutamate

Calbee was founded in Hiroshima Japan in 1949 as Matsuo Food Company. Their first product was a vitamin enriched caramel candy called Calbee Caramel that became so popular the company changed its name to Calbee in 1955. While the company had experimented with some wheat-based crackers and snacks it was in 1964 when they launched the product that would make them famous – their Kappa Ebisen, or shrimp chips. Calbee launched in North America in 1970 on the strength of their shrimp chips and now has grown into one of Japan’s largest multinational snack brands with production facilities in over 11 countries and worldwide sales in the billions of dollars. Something I hadn’t known before is that Calbee makes the popular Harvest Snaps dried vegetable snacks. For this review I wanted to check out a spicy version of their first break-out product, in this case the Hot Garlic version of their Shrimp Chips.

Despite being called chips these are more akin to crackers with the first ingredient being wheat flour. However, Calbee doesn’t disappoint when it comes to shrimp content with shrimp being the third ingredient by volume and according to the bag the shrimp are wild caught. Some corn and tapioca starch are present to make things extra crispy. The hot garlic seasoning consists of sugar, garlic powder, chili powder, soy sauce, white pepper, and a variety of flavor enhancers including MSG and Disodium 5′-Ribonucleodtides which is a combination of Disodium Inosinate and Disodium Guanylate, both contributory umami enhances that multiply the effects of MSG. Interestingly much of Japanese traditional cuisine is naturally high in all three types of glutamates. For instance dashi, the traditional Japanese stock, uses kombu, naturally high in MSG, bonito flakes, naturally high in inosinate, and oftentimes shiitake mushrooms, naturally high in guanylate. Finished off with some chemical leavening ingredients and a bit more sugar and MSG the ingredients list for these is remarkably clean for a mass-market snack food. Other than some hydrolyzed soy and corn proteins (industrially produced umami boosters), the isolated flavor enhancers, and the “natural garlic natural flavoring” there’s nothing scary here and surprisingly no artificial preservatives.

Calbee Hot Garlic Shrimp Chips are incredibly light and crunchy. When you first open up the bag there is a bit of a strong dried seafood smell but that dissipates quickly and there’s no lingering unpleasant scent. Asians in general seem far more comfortable with seafood or fishy flavors in snack products than we do in the USA. Sometimes it’s just fish sauces added to a snack or sometimes the entire snack itself becomes fish or seafood. These fall somewhere in the middle and do have a noticeable dried seafood flavor while also not being overpowering. Chili, garlic, and shrimp are all natural companions and many of the world’s greatest shrimp dishes feature spice and garlic. In the Calbee Hot Garlic Shrimp Chips that heat and garlic flavor do a great job at keeping these from tasting too fishy. Instead the shrimp in these crackers plus the flavor boosters and soy sauce all add up to a deep umami flavor that’s meatier and more satisfying than anything you’d find in a traditional western chip or cracker. There is a subtle sweetness behind the shrimpy spicy garlicky flavors which somehow works even if sweet shrimp wouldn’t initially be a flavor combination I’d gravitate towards. The umami flavors dominate more than the heat but these do have a little bit of a chile warms that builds as you eat more.

I’m happy to recommend Calbee Hot Garlic Shrimp Chips. If you haven’t tried an Asian shrimp chip snack before I think these would be a great introduction as while they do have some shrimp flavor it’s balanced against the other flavors so that these don’t come off as extremely fishy like some Asian snacks I’ve tried. They also have a lovely texture and with the rich umami taste they’re very satisying.