The Story Behind Calon Tempeh Crisps: A Little Idea That Took Us Somewhere Unexpected

Quick answer: Calon Tempeh Crisps began when my daughter Ahna and her friend Nabil loved a bag of tempeh crisps I brought home from a holiday and asked why they couldn’t buy them in the UK. I first planned to import them from Indonesia. After asking hard questions about ingredient sourcing and oversight, I decided to learn to make them myself, in Cardiff.

It started with a holiday, a bag of crisps and a conversation at home.

Nothing particularly dramatic.

No grand business plan. No meeting room. No complicated market strategy.

Just my daughter Ahna, her friend Nabil, and a snack they couldn't stop talking about.

And, without any of us realising it at the time, that little conversation would eventually lead to Calon Tempeh Crisps.

“Why can't we get these in the UK?”

After returning from a holiday back home, I brought some tempeh crisps with me.

Ahna and her friend Nabil tried them and absolutely loved them.

They kept talking about how good they were and how they wished they could buy them here in the UK.

You know how it is when someone discovers a food they really like. They want more of it. And they want to know why they can't find it closer to home.

Their enthusiasm stayed with me.

So I started looking.

Could we buy tempeh crisps in the UK? Were there other people making them? Was this already a familiar snack that I had somehow missed?

I searched online and found very few options. There was an imported brand available, made using black eyed peas and fried in coconut oil.

We ordered some.

We tried them.

And although they were perfectly different in their own way, they weren't quite what we had in mind. The taste and experience were simply different from the crisps we had brought home.

I found myself thinking about it.

What if we could bring the kind we loved to the UK?

Tempeh is already a wonderful traditional food. It is made through fermentation, has a distinctive character and can be used in so many ways. Why shouldn't there be a crispy snack made from it that people could enjoy just as easily as any other packet of crisps?

Something tasty.

Something different.

Something that might introduce people to tempeh without asking them to learn a whole new way of cooking first.

At that stage, I thought the answer might be quite straightforward.

Find a good manufacturer in Indonesia, work together to make the crisps, and bring them to the UK.

It seemed like a sensible place to start.

As I would soon discover, the journey had other plans.

The plan was to bring them over from Indonesia

My first thought was simple: if we loved these tempeh crisps so much, perhaps we could bring them to the UK and share them with other people.

Indonesia is where tempeh has such deep roots, and I wanted to understand the product properly before taking the idea any further. So, I travelled to Indonesia not only to explore the possibility of working with a manufacturer, but also to learn about tempeh production from people who knew the craft well.

I wanted to see the process with my own eyes, ask questions, understand how the ingredients were handled, and learn from the experience of people who had been working with tempeh. There is a difference between reading about a food and standing in a production facility, watching how it is made and learning directly from those who understand it best.

That trip was an important part of my learning journey. I came away with a deeper appreciation of the care, knowledge and practical experience behind tempeh production. It also helped me understand that if I wanted to build a business around this wonderful food, I needed to do more than simply love the finished product. I needed to understand the process and the responsibilities that came with making it available to customers in the UK.

At that stage, my intention was to preserve the authenticity of the product by having the crisps made in Indonesia and importing them to the UK. It seemed like the natural place to begin.

But as the conversations with the manufacturer continued, I began to think more carefully about what that decision would mean for the kind of business I wanted Calon Tempeh to become.

When an exciting idea becomes a serious responsibility

My original thinking had been simple.

If I wanted to retain the authenticity of the snack I had discovered back home, why not make it in Indonesia, where tempeh has such a long food tradition?

It made sense to me.

Before signing any legal agreements, I started asking more detailed questions about the ingredients, particularly the soyabeans used in production.

I wanted to be confident that the ingredients met the standards I hoped to uphold for the UK market, including having reliable information about soyabean sourcing and non-GMO status. I realised that I needed to be able to verify those details for myself, rather than simply rely on an assumption or a promise.

The more I thought about it, the more I understood that this was not just a business decision. It was a question of responsibility.

If someone bought a packet of Calon Tempeh Crisps, what would I be able to tell them about what they were eating? Could I stand behind the ingredients and the process with confidence? Was I comfortable putting my name on a product when I still had questions I could not fully answer?

These questions stayed with me. I could see the commercial opportunity, but I also knew that building a business meant making decisions I could live with. I did not want the excitement of launching a new product to become more important than being able to trust what I was offering.

I couldn't simply assume that everything would be as I wanted it to be.

I needed answers.

I needed the right assurances.

And I needed to understand what could be checked, documented and maintained throughout production.

This wasn't a question of whether Indonesian manufacturing was good or bad. It was a question of whether that particular arrangement would give me the confidence and oversight I wanted for Calon.

I kept thinking about the person who would eventually pick up a packet of our crisps.

They wouldn't be there when the ingredients were sourced.

They wouldn't see the manufacturing process.

They wouldn't know the conversations that had taken place before the product reached the shelf.

They would see a packet, read the label and decide whether to trust us.

And that trust mattered to me.

I kept coming back to one question.

If I am going to tell people that I care about what goes into this product, how sure can I be that I am doing everything I reasonably can to make that promise meaningful?

It was not a question I could easily put aside.

I wanted to be able to sleep at night knowing that I had made a decision I could stand behind.

And slowly, the original plan began to change.

So, I paused. And then I began to consider a different path: what if we learned to make the crisps ourselves, here in Wales?

What if we started from scratch?

At first, the idea of making the crisps ourselves felt like a much bigger undertaking.

Importing an established product had seemed like the easier route.

Starting from scratch meant learning about production, equipment, ingredients, processes, packaging and food safety. It meant asking questions that I had never needed to ask before.

It meant accepting that I would have a great deal to learn.

But there was something reassuring about the idea too.

If we developed the product ourselves, we could work towards having much closer control over the ingredients and the process.

We could make decisions based on the standards we wanted to establish for Calon.

We could learn from each batch, make adjustments and document what we were doing.

We could build the product around the principles we wanted the brand to represent, rather than trying to fit our expectations around someone else's existing arrangements.

And so, instead of simply bringing tempeh crisps over from Indonesia, I decided to explore making them here in Wales.

That decision changed the journey completely.

It also made it much more personal.

Learning to make something that didn't have a ready made recipe

There is a difference between enjoying a food and making it yourself.

When you eat something delicious, you can simply enjoy it.

When you decide to produce it commercially, suddenly there are a hundred other questions.

How do you make it consistently?

How do you get the texture right?

How do you achieve the flavour you want?

How do you ensure that every batch meets the same standard?

How do you manage food safety, packaging, labelling and shelf life?

And how do you do all of this as a small business, without losing sight of why you started in the first place?

I had to learn.

I had to research.

I had to speak to people who knew things I didn't.

I had to listen, take advice and accept that progress would come through a series of small steps rather than one great leap.

There were processes to understand and practical problems to solve.

There were decisions about ingredients, equipment and how to turn an idea into a product that could actually be made, packed and sold responsibly.

And all the while, I kept thinking about that original bag of crisps.

The one Ahna and Nabil had enjoyed so much.

The one that had started this whole conversation.

Sometimes, when you are in the middle of all the technical details of starting a food business, it helps to remember the simple reason you began.

For me, it was this:

I had discovered a snack I loved, and I wanted other people to have the opportunity to discover it too.

Why Wales? A little milestone close to home

Choosing to make our tempeh crisps in Wales was about more than keeping production close to home. It was about learning, taking responsibility for what we make, and building something we could truly stand behind.

It also led us somewhere we had not originally imagined. 

The more I thought about the journey, the more meaningful it became to make the crisps here.

Calon began with an interest in bringing tempeh to more people in Wales.

Fresh tempeh was one part of that story.

But tempeh crisps offered another possibility.

Not everyone knows how to cook tempeh.

Not everyone has heard of it.

And for someone encountering it for the first time, a block of fermented soybeans can raise quite a few questions.

What is it?

What does it taste like?

How do I cook it?

Will I like it?

A crispy snack offers a different starting point.

You can open a packet, try a few and decide what you think.

There is no complicated recipe to follow and no pressure to become an expert in tempeh overnight.

Perhaps you discover a new favourite snack.

Perhaps you become curious about the fresh tempeh too.

Perhaps you simply tell a friend about something they have never tried before.

That is the possibility that excites me.

I want tempeh to reach beyond the people who already know and love it. I want curious eaters, adventurous snackers and people who enjoy discovering something different to have a chance to experience it.

And I wanted to contribute to that from here in Wales.

As far as we know, Calon is among the early producers to develop tempeh crisps commercially here in Wales. We are still careful about claiming to be the first, because we cannot rule out every other producer or product that may exist.

But whether we are first or not, we know why we started.

We wanted to make something we believed in, using a process we could develop and take responsibility for, right here in Cardiff. (We say more in our Tempeh Crisps journey)

Three flavours, one little idea

Today, that original idea has become Calon Tempeh Crisps.

Our range includes Original, Welsh Salt and Black Pepper.

Each has its own character, but they share the same starting point: fermented soybeans transformed into a crispy snack. You can try them here.

We have kept the idea simple.

Make something enjoyable.

Give people a different way to discover tempeh.

And keep learning how to do it better.

When we took the crisps to our first farmers' market in Cardiff, I was excited to see how people would respond.

Some people had heard of tempeh before.

Many hadn't.

There were questions, conversations, curious looks and people deciding to give something unfamiliar a try.

Those moments meant a great deal to me.

Because I remembered where the idea had started.

A bag brought home from a holiday.

Two young people talking enthusiastically about a snack.

A question asked almost casually.

Why can't we get these in the UK?

And now, here we were, standing behind a little market table in Wales with our own crisps.

It felt rather special.

The part you don't see on the packet

When you pick up a packet of crisps, you probably don't think about the journey behind it.

You don't see the research.

You don't see the conversations with manufacturers.

You don't see the questions about ingredients.

You don't see the decisions that led us to change direction.

You don't see the learning, the planning or the work involved in developing a product from scratch.

And that is perfectly understandable.

You should be able to enjoy a snack without needing to know its entire history.

But I wanted to share this story because it explains something important about Calon.

We didn't start making tempeh crisps because we wanted to be different for the sake of being different.

We started because we loved the idea of the product.

Then we discovered that making it in a way we could confidently stand behind mattered just as much as the product itself.

That changed our plans.

It made the journey harder.

But it also made the finished product more meaningful to us.

There is something special about being able to look at a packet and know that it represents more than an idea you once had.

It represents the questions you asked, the decisions you made and the work you were willing to put in.

From our kitchen in Wales to your hands

Sometimes I think about how easily this whole thing might never have happened.

If Ahna and Nabil hadn't talked so enthusiastically about those crisps, perhaps I wouldn't have started researching.

If I hadn't looked into importing them, perhaps I wouldn't have visited the manufacturing plant.

And if I hadn't asked those difficult questions about ingredients and oversight, perhaps Calon Tempeh Crisps would have taken a very different path.

But that is how starting a small business often works.

One question leads to another.

One decision changes the next.

And before you know it, you find yourself doing something you never originally planned.

I certainly didn't set out knowing how to develop and produce tempeh crisps.

I began with curiosity.

Then came research, conversations, decisions and a willingness to learn.

We are still learning, of course. There will always be more to understand and more ways to improve.

But I am proud that we chose to explore a path that allows us to build the product around the standards and values we want Calon to represent.

And I am grateful to everyone who has helped us along the way.

To those who have shared their knowledge.

To those who have answered our questions.

To those who have offered advice.

And to the customers who have been curious enough to try something new.

You are now part of the story too.

A little curiosity can take you a long way

If you had told me that a conversation between my daughter and her friend would eventually lead me to develop tempeh crisps in Cardiff, I might have smiled and wondered how that was going to happen.

Yet here we are.

What began as a wish to bring a favourite snack to the UK became a journey into food production, ingredient sourcing, food safety and the realities of running a small business.

It taught me that sometimes the best route isn't the easiest one.

Sometimes you have to pause, ask harder questions and be willing to change your plans.

And sometimes, the thing you set out to do leads you somewhere you never expected.

For Calon, that journey has brought us to our own little range of tempeh crisps, made here in Wales, with much more still to learn and discover.

If you have already tried them, thank you for being part of our story.

And if you haven't, perhaps this is your invitation.

You don't need to know anything about tempeh.

You don't need to be an expert.

You just need a little curiosity.

Because every now and then, a simple snack can lead to a rather wonderful journey.

And this one began with a bag of crisps brought home from a holiday.

Questions about our crisps

Where are Calon Tempeh Crisps made?

In Cardiff, Wales.

What flavours are there?

Original, Welsh Salt and Black Pepper.

Why did you make them in Wales instead of importing them?

We wanted closer oversight of the ingredients and process, and to take responsibility for what we make. This wasn’t a judgement on Indonesian manufacturing.

Are tempeh crisps suitable if I have a soya allergy?

No. Our tempeh is made from soyabeans. Please check the pack for full ingredient and allergen information.

Calon.

Protein with a place.