The explosion in coffee shops that has taken place over the past couple of decades has paved the way for coffee to move beyond drinks. Potato chips are the latest category to be inspired by coffee with new Calbee Pari Pari Variation My Potato, Mocha Cocoa Potato Chips. New in Japan, this product is the innovation of the week from Datamonitor’s Product Launch Analytics.
“Bitter and Sweet” are the words used to describe Calbee’s new Mocha Cocoa potato chips. Inspired by the flavor of sweet coffee drinks, Mocha Cocoa is one of a pair of new limited time flavors that have been added to Calbee’s line of potato chips in Japan. Japanese movie and television star Yuichi Kimura is the public face of the new flavor and apparently acted as an advisor on this unique new flavor choice.
Tom Vierhile, Innovation Insights Director for Datamonitor notes that “consumers around the world are seeking out bold and unusual new flavor combinations.” He goes on to say, “coffee is certainly an unusual flavor choice for a salty snack like potato chips, but this snack sector has often proved to be accommodating to new and unusual flavors, and that could also be the case here.”
