Jagarico facts for kids
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| Type | Potato snack food |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 1995 |
Jagarico is a super popular salty snack from Japan. It's made mostly from fried potatoes. This yummy snack was first made in 1995 by a company called Calbee. Think of Jagarico as potato chips shaped like sticks! They look a lot like thin French fries.
Discover Jagarico Snacks
You can find Jagarico in different package sizes. These range from small packs to larger ones. A regular Jagarico stick is about 7 cm long. It's also roughly 7 mm wide. Since 2012, Calbee has made longer sticks too. These are about 8.5 cm long. In 2022, even thinner sticks came out. They are around 5.25 mm wide.
These crunchy potato sticks come in many flavors. You can find them all over Japan. They are also sold in at least ten other countries! Calbee often creates new flavors to keep things exciting. If a flavor isn't very popular, they might stop making it. For example, a "Salt and Sesame Oil" flavor came out in 2016. Around the same time, "Jurassic Salt" and "Cheese Curry" flavors were stopped. This was because they didn't sell very well.
In 2020, a shorter garlic-flavored Jagarico was made. This version was created for older snack fans. Jagarico is a big part of Calbee's business. In 2017, Jagarico sales made up about 14.5% of Calbee's total sales. By 2021, Jagarico sales in Japan reached about 34.5 billion yen. Selling Jagarico in other countries is also becoming very important. A survey in 2017 found Jagarico was the fourth most popular snack in Tokyo.
Jagarico's Snack Family
Jagarico's ingredients are like many potato chips. But its stick shape is similar to a Japanese sweet potato snack. This snack is called kempi. Jagarico is known as a "fabricated potato snack." This means it's made from processed potatoes.
Jagarico is similar to other stick-shaped potato snacks. These include Koikeya's "Stick Karamucho" and Morinaga's "Potelong." Another similar snack is Seijō Ishii's "Miraku Nori." Jagarico is also related to another Calbee snack called Jagabee. Jagabee sticks are thicker. They are made from whole potatoes with their skins on. Jagarico sticks are usually thinner. They are made from skinned potatoes. Calbee makes different snacks for different people. Jagarico was made mainly for teenage girls. Jagabee was made for older snack lovers.
Jagarico's success led to many new snacks. Around 1998, Calbee started selling "Satsumariko." This is a sweet potato version of Jagarico. In 2018, a corn version called "Tomorico" was sold across Japan. That same year, a soybean version called "Edamarico" also came out. In 2021, a thicker potato snack called "Poteriko" was launched.
