KALDI Coriander Pakuchi Potato Chips

The full Japanese name of this product is a warning and a promise in one: “Pakuchi Potato Chips, Made by Pakuchi Lovers.”

KALDI — Japan’s beloved import-food emporium, the treasure-hunt chain where Japanese shoppers go for coffee and curious things from everywhere — created this chip at the height of the country’s mid-2010s coriander craze, when pakuchi went from garnish to national obsession, complete with restaurants serving nothing else.

Most trend products faded. This one became a permanent cult item.

Pakuchi is the Japanese word for fresh coriander leaf — cilantro, to Americans — borrowed from Thai, and the flavor here is not a polite nod in its direction.

The chip plays a famous trick documented across years of Japanese reviews: open the bag and you smell almost nothing, just potato.

Take one bite, and the coriander arrives at full strength and stays, backed by a genuinely ambitious spice cabinet — clove, cardamom, star anise, cinnamon — that pushes the whole bag toward the flavor of a Southeast Asian street market.

The chip underneath deserves its own credit: a satisfyingly crisp, lightly salted, quality potato base that reviewers praise even when the coriander defeats them.

And it does defeat some. This is one of the most honestly divisive snacks in Japan — adored by pakuchi lovers who call it addictive, and described by the other camp with the classic Japanese anti-coriander slur: “it tastes like stink bug.”

The review scores scatter across the entire scale, which is exactly what a coriander product should achieve.

If you love cilantro, this bag was made for you by your own people. If you don’t, buy it for someone you wish to test.

About this item
Item Name : Pakuchi Potato Chips
Brand : KALDI Coffee Farm
Item Form : Potato Chips
Number of Items : 60g (Pack of 1)