Known as Kaki no Tane 柿の種 (literally, "persimmon seeds"), the small, orange, crescent-shaped rice crackers with a soy and mild chili pepper taste have been around since the Taisho Era in Japan, and are a staple at many bars, often mixed with peanuts.

They are now made by several companies, but the largest producer is Kameda Seika Co., Ltd., which is famous for its 柿ピー kakipī combination with peanuts, a Japanese favorite since 1966.

Kameda Seika has made countless varieties of their famous snack through the years, ranging from wasabi, pickled plum and perilla, yuzu pepper, extra spicy, and even limited-edition flavors like Sichuan spice and double cheese.

However, although the venerable rice cracker company has toyed with the 7:3 ratio of rice crackers "seeds" (tane) to peanuts, temporarily adopting a 6:4 ratio before returning to 7:3 again, and even offering customers a version without peanuts entirely, there's one line Kameda Seika has never crossed, until now.

A cracker company making a snack with no crackers?

As a rice cracker company, Kameda Seika has always included crackers in their Kaki no Tane, but that is all about to change on March 7th, 2022, with the release of 『亀田の柿の種 ピーナッツだけ 6袋詰』 (Kaki no Tane only peanuts - 6 bag pack). As proudly displayed on the bag, the ratio is 0:10. You read that right. This is a bag of peanuts without a single cracker in it. Sold by a cracker company.

Each pack of 6 bags weighs 150 grams and will cost around 258 JPY (MSRP).

And if you have a peanut allergy or you just can't get enough of those crescent-shaped rice crackers, they're also launching an updated version of 『亀田の柿の種 ピーナッツだけ 6袋詰』(Kaki no Tane no peanuts - 6 bag pack) at the same time. Of course, the bag also shows off the ratio, in this case 10:0.

Each pack of 6 bags weighs 150 grams and will cost around 183 JPY (MSRP).

If you think it's not only this product that's totally nuts, there's a reason behind the madness. They conducted a survey from September to November 2020 revealing that their customers fell into three groups: those who "want to eat only crackers," those who "want to eat only peanuts," and those who "want to customize the crackers to peanuts ratio." That's why they finally jumped into the deep end and made the bold decision to finally go cracker-free.

You can look for your 6-bag pack of totally nuts or totally crackers variety of Kaki no Tane at supermarkets and all places where snacks are sold in Japan from March 7th, 2022.