Just like how everyone gets excited about superhero crossover projects, two different companies combining forces is a sure way to get junk food fans in Japan fired up. We’ve seen this before with Kentucky Fried Chicken potato chips, and now spud lovers have a new flavor many people are used to getting amped by: coffee.
Since we’re always ready to add to our extensive resume of potato chip sampling, we picked up a bag to try some for ourselves, and they turned out to be even more surprising than we’d imagined.
Providing the potato chip expertise is Yamayoshi, the Tokyo-based company behind the delicious wasabi and beef Wasabeef potato chips (plus their soon-to-be-released milder cousins). The Pokka Coffee Potato Chips are available exclusively at Ministop, Three F, and Cocostore convenience stores.
Coffee-flavored potato chips might seem like a fairly straightforward proposition, we weren’t exactly sure what this team-up had in store for our taste buds. While coffee itself is bitter, canned verities in Japan are often sweetened, and Pokka Coffee has a unique sweetness all its own. So with the coffee potato chips, would we be getting something sweet, or bitter? Fresh, or crazy?
A quick look at the shelves of a convenience store or a bank of vending machines will tell you that Japan has tons of brands of canned coffee, but few have been around for as long as Pokka Coffee. Part of Sapporo Holdings, which also owns the Sapporo and Ebisu Beer brands, Pokka has been giving coffee fans their fix in a can since 1972.