Made in Wales.

Inspired by Indonesia

From Indonesia to Wales, with heart.

Tempeh has been part of Indonesian food culture for generations. Nutritious, versatile and delicious, it has been enjoyed in countless ways.

We want to bring the spirit to Wales. At Calon, we're inspired by that tradition and bring it together with the care and character of a small Welsh food producer.

So we begin making our tempeh fresh in Cardiff.

Small batches. Careful Fermentation.

With a focus on freshness, flavour and quality.

Thank you for being part of it.

OUR TEMPEH CRISPS... BELIEVED TO BE A FIRST IN WALES

As far as we know, nobody in Wales had ever done this before.

 

Tempeh Crisps aren't something you'll usually find on a UK shelf, let alone made from scratch in a small unit in Cardiff. When we set out to turn traditional tempeh into a crispy snack — properly fermented, then made, packed and sold commercially, right here in Wales — we couldn't point to anyone else who'd done it quite this way before. That's exciting. It's also a little daunting. There was no recipe book for this bit.

We didn't do it to be first for the sake of it. We did it because tempeh deserves a bigger audience than the health-food aisle — and because "have you ever tried tempeh?" is a question we never get tired of asking.

 

This started with a taste we didn't want to lose.

Where I come from, tempeh isn’t just an ingredient. It’s breakfast. It’s a Tuesday dinner. It’s what your grandmother fries while she tells you to sit down and eat. The bag of crisps I carried home from that holiday was a small piece of all that, tucked into a suitcase.

So when Ahna and Nabil loved them and asked why they couldn’t buy them in the UK, I realised I wasn’t only looking for a snack. I was trying to bring a feeling across the miles.

At first, I thought that meant importing them. But bringing that feeling to Wales properly meant more than shipping a product. It meant asking harder questions about what goes into every packet. It meant learning to ferment and fry it myself, testing it obsessively, and getting it wrong more times than I’d like to admit.

Every batch we make now is, in some way, homesickness turned into something you can hold in your hands. And hopefully, something that makes Cardiff feel a little more like home too.

Our soyabeans are certified organic and non-GM. They are grown in Canada and shipped to Wales, where we ferment, pack and freeze every batch. [UK-grown organic soyabeans are not yet available at the volume and quality we need.] We are exploring UK-grown pulses for future recipes.

Calon Tempeh is a brand of Amsta Commerce Ltd, an independent Welsh food business based in Cardiff.