Imagine our shock, while strolling through the colorful world of the modern supermarkets, to see these packets of Calbee potato chips, completely in black and white packaging! So beautiful, amiright?! I've eaten Calbee potato chips before plenty a time, they're one of the biggest Japanese potato chip makers around, with many an interesting asian inspired flavor. But I had never seen anything packaged in monotone like these chips and so, naturally, we had to grab some to try out!
First tho, before some serious chip noshing, why the big change? Calbee packaging used to come in colorful colors and cute logos (a cheeky boater hatted potato). Interesting, it turns out that the radical change to black and white was due to the ongoing Iran war and its possible impact in ink production!
Specifically, the re-packaging was because of possible shortage of naphtha, a petroleum derived solvent, which is used to manufacture the synthetic resins and pigment that bind ink color to packaging and paper. The blocking of the Strait of Hormuz has apparently severely disrupted global naphtha supplies. To preempt any shortages, Calbee decided to redo some of their packaging, using only two ink colors-black and white, simplifying the design, even removing the cheeky potato!
So elegant, minimal and refreshing! I loooove the design on these chip bags! In a world overloaded with images and color, this sleek and simple design really stands out and shines.
The first bag of chips we opened was the Big Bag Kataage Lightly Salted Potato Chips. The Japanese characters under the 'Big Bag' indicate the type of chips, so look for that when buying.
These Lightly Salted Potato Chips are the classic potato chips, thin and crispy, potato-y, just the right amount of salt. I love classic, simple potato chips; they are my favorite flavor. So we really loved these.
The other flavor we found was the Big Bag Norishio Salted Seaweed Potato Chips. Again check the flavor by the Japanese text in the black band under 'Big Bag.'
These potato chips were flecked with green bits of dried seaweed. If you're a seaweed fan, this potato chip is seriously seaweed yummy. I love seaweed, it's such an addictive flavor and so good for you too.
We nosh, nosh, noshed our way through these two bags quick as a flash. I love me a potato chip attack! Sooo satisfying!
We tried these two flavors and have seen a couple more flavors around town at various shops. We've seen "Consumme Soup" flavor potato chips and "Shrimp Chips." If you're interested in trying these Calbee chip flavors in their innovative re-packaging (flavor+design!) keep your eyes peeled. It's easy to spot them in their black and white packaging against the usual color packed background of markets.
I totally love the Calbee re-design and hope that they keep it! What do y'all think?
More Japanese Flavors at The Hong Kong Cookery:
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