Calbee Crunch Sour Cream and Onion

When I think of Calbee potato chips, I think of very light, thin chips. While I love me some thick, crunchy potato chips, there’s still a time and place for the thin ones and I rarely say no to them. Especially if they have an enticing flavour like sour cream and onion.

Similar to most bags of Calbee, and Japanese chips in general, the bag is quite small by our western standards. Forced portion control, as I like to think of it. It’s probably better for me in the long run that these bags are on the smaller side. My wallet hurts a little, but my body thanks it.

The sour cream and onion seasoning is very similar to what you’d get from a bag of Ruffles. It’s fairly standard, and you probably have an idea of what these would taste like if you’ve ever had sour cream and onion chips from Lay’s or Ruffles. I’m fully convinced that there’s just a standard flavour combination in a lab somewhere simply called “sour cream and onion”. It’s hard to mess up, but also hard to distinguish from others, which may or may not be a bad thing depending on which side of the fence you fall on.

The texture of these is amazing, and I’m still not sure how they managed it. They look identical to Ruffles, so you would expect them to be similar in texture, being crunchy and all. But calling these just crunchy feels like a disservice. They appear to be the same thickness as standard potato chips so I can only assume they have some sort of frying process that makes these so crunchy. I suspect they use a special oil while also frying these at least twice. These are so firm and crunchy, I would have a hard time believing they didn’t do something special to them. Typically ripple chips have a thicker texture and crunch to them. But these are like if you took a kettle chip and somehow added ripples after the fact. These are so crunchy that they remind me of french fries that have sat in the fryer for too long and get real crunchy but have no potato “flesh” left on the inside. If someone handed these to me and I didn’t specifically know they were made for extra crunch, I might think they were off or a batch that was left too long in the fryer.

I’m not sure what else to say about these, other than that I think I’m in love. I recognize this may not be for everyone though, as they are quite hard and way crunchier than what most are used to. They also aren’t for those that prefer a nice airy or crispy chip, as these are all in on the crunch. For that I can say I would get these again.