Calbee Potato Chips Consomme Punch

The "Punch" in the name is not decorative. Calbee looked at regular consommé flavouring, decided it was not doing enough, and doubled down into something that delivers a deep, savory, umami-heavy seasoning that coats every chip with the kind of flavour that makes your brain sit up and pay attention. Beefy, slightly sweet, with a complexity that has no right existing in a bag of crisps, Consomme Punch is the flavour that turned an entire generation of Japanese snackers into lifelong devotees.

It is also, quietly, the crisp by which all other Japanese flavoured crisps are measured. Every new flavour launch from every competing brand is somewhere being compared to Consomme Punch, whether its makers admit it or not. The standard is that high and has been since 1975. Calbee invented something close to perfect on the first attempt and has had the good sense to leave it largely alone ever since. Open a bag expecting a snack and discover instead a deeply satisfying experience that explains, in one handful, exactly why Japanese convenience store snacks have the reputation they do.