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Japan now has a new crazy potato chip flavour, and it tastes just like a Japanese Christmas cake!

They’ve given us chips that taste like bananas, peaches and even matcha powdered green tea. Now popular snack food maker Koikeya is taking a page from the field of cake-making for their new flavour sensation, bringing us the awesome strawberry shortcake-flavoured chip. Our Japanese-language reporter Meg recently brought a bag into the office, so it was time to see how they tasted for ourselves.

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The chips are made using Tochiotome strawberries from Tochigi Prefecture, the nation’s number one producer of the sweet red fruit.

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The unusual release has been perfectly timed to coincide with the most popular time of year for strawberry shortcake consumption: Christmas! The cake’s red strawberries and white whipped cream make it a popular choice for families to share together on December 24 or 25 as they conveniently match the colours of Santa’s festive outfit and Japan’s national flag. How would strawberry shortcake fare as a potato chip flavour, though? Meg opened the bag to find out.

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Instantly, we could smell the sweet fragrance of strawberries. Looking down at her hand, though, this was no strawberry shortcake. Indeed, it was just a plain-looking potato chip.

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Before the chip hit her tongue, Meg was already reminiscing about the cakes of Christmas past. As soon as the crispy morsel was in her mouth, she couldn’t believe what she was tasting.

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Laughing with disbelief, Meg described the incredible flavour sensation. It didn’t taste like a fruit, it tasted like an actual Japanese Christmas cake! The sweet flavour of whipped cream was there, mixed with just the right amount of sour strawberry, spreading evenly around her mouth as if she were eating a piece of strawberry shortcake. It was shocking and delicious all at the same time.

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Sure enough, cream-flavored powder (クリーム風味パウダー) is high up on the ingredients list, which explains why it was so prominent in the flavour profile. There’s strawberry fruit juice powder in there too and stevia is also used as one of several sweet ingredients.

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Would she buy them again? Yes! In fact, Meg thinks there’ll be many families in Japan sharing a laugh over these during Christmas. If you want to substitute a bag of chips for the creamy cake this year, these will be available for 130 yen (US$1.07) at convenience stores nationwide from December 14.

All photos: RocketNews24
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