KariKari Garlic Chili Crisp

Warning: explosively good on everything. They weren’t kidding.

KariKari’s Garlic Chili Crisp came to us two ways: the team kindly sent a jar, and a viewer (shout out ASAP Napster) demanded we review it. Both were right.

The story

The name comes from a Japanese word for crunchy/crispy — and the creators, Ruby and Rob, come from a multicultural family (African-American/Japanese and Irish-Italian), which shows up in how freely this jar mixes influences.

The taste test

Stir from the bottom — really. It’s very, very chunky, with big garlic pieces floating on a modest amount of oil. It smells smoky; the garlic chips taste like something you’d pay for as a bar snack. The heat arrives at the end of the bite, medium and friendly, after the crunch has already sold you.

This is the jar where we first said “this would be really delicious on pizza,” and honestly a margherita with KariKari is still one of our favorite bites. They also recommend it on grilled meats, roasted veggies, fried eggs, warm rice, folded into aioli — even vanilla ice cream (we’ve had sriracha ice cream; we believe).

Price

About $15 — middle of the premium scale, and you get what you pay for. The packaging and website are as clean as the product.

Verdict

A+ tier. If crunch is your love language, this is the textural king of our shelf. We’ve repurchased multiple times, which is the only stat that really matters.