Japan is widely known for its seasonal snacks – it seems like every product you come across is offered in different flavours throughout the year. In the hot summer months, mint chocolate is the most popular flavour, but Japanese snack purveyor Calbee is going way beyond that. This month, Calbee is launching 47 different flavours of potato crisps, each themed after a different prefecture in Japan.
Through this Love Japan Project, Calbee is aiming to help people discover other parts of Japan via the respective prefectures' most distinctive dish. The campaign is now in its fourth year, and Calbee is bringing back the most popular flavours from the previous years – one for each prefecture – releasing them on three separate days: July 6, 13 and 20. There are six different Calbee snack brands involved: the flagship Potato Chips Crisp as well as Kataage Potato, Jagariko, Jagabee, Sapporo Potato and Kappa Ebisen. Here are some of the big-name flavours.
Fukuoka: Burdock tempura udon flavoured Jagariko
Hiroshima: Soupless dandan noodle flavoured Kappa Ebisen
Hokkaido: Salt kombu flavoured Jagariko
Kyoto: Chirimen (dried baby sardines) and sansho pepper flavoured Kataage Potato
Nagano: Pickled nozawana flavoured potato chips
Nara: Kakino ha sushi (pressed sushi wrapped in persimmon leaf) flavoured potato chips
Okinawa: Taco rice flavoured potato chips
Osaka: Benishoga (pickled red ginger) flavoured potato chips
Tokyo: Tempura flavoured Kappa Ebisen
For the full list of flavours, check Calbee's website. You'll find the limited-edition snacks at any local convenience store or supermarket, as well as the Calbee+ stores in Harajuku and Tokyo Station.
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