How Ryuji Saw the Schau Essen "6 Sausages → 5" Backlash: Understanding the Price Hike, Pushing Back on Exclusivity Contracts, and Schau Essen Gyoza

According to Ryuji's explanation, the official Schau Essen account posted something to the effect of "We won't be beaten by the times" the day before the announcement. The next day's announcement, however, was that the number of sausages per bag would be reduced from six to five. Schau Essen explains that each sausage is now packed fuller, so each one weighs more, but the contents of a bag have dropped from 117g to 107g. Because both the count and the total weight went down, it drew a strong backlash.

The first question Ryuji raises is this: raw material costs are soaring across the board, and prices are going up for everything from ramen on down, not just Schau Essen, so why was Schau Essen the only one to get flamed? The answer Ryuji points to is consumer psychology. Having said "we won't be beaten by the times" the day before and then cutting the quantity, the reaction may have been: then don't say "don't be beaten by the times." Why not just say plainly, "Due to rising material costs, we're raising prices and reducing the count"? Why try to make it look good?

A staff member added that Schau Essen had always come in packs of six. Products like Kunseiya come in fives, and Schau Essen was the only one with six, so many people said they had bought it for that reason and would no longer buy it. With six, two people can split them three each, or three people two each, but with five there's always one left over. The explanation was that people reacted by saying they'd buy a different product instead.

Ryuji gave Schau Essen a high rating in a sausage taste-test video, and says the reason is simply that it tastes good. Even so, Ryuji repeatedly says this video is "really risky." That's because Ryuji has partnered with Marudai Foods to release a Kunseiya product.

When a celebrity is cast in a manufacturer's commercial, many contracts prohibit them from being involved with competing products from other companies, and they're not even allowed to appear on TV alongside them. Since they become the face of the brand, Ryuji says that's understandable for celebrities. But if a culinary researcher signs that kind of contract, then no matter how delicious a sausage or wiener comes out in the future, they can't eat it, and the scope of their culinary research narrows. Ryuji has not signed any such contract.

Even so, Ryuji says that someone in this line of work almost never touches on other companies' products. There's a risk of being disliked by both Marudai and Schau Essen, and Ryuji added that there's nothing to gain from it personally.

Ryuji's basic position is that the promotion was handled badly, but Schau Essen tastes good, and the price hike is unavoidable because of rising raw material costs.

As grounds for this, Ryuji points to the supermarkets' side of things. If the price of a bag goes up, supermarket buyers say, "Then we won't stock it." They'd have to rewrite all the price tags, and sales volume would drop, so buyers absolutely don't want price increases. Ryuji does promotions and product development with various manufacturers and says this is definitely true, because whenever it comes time to raise a price, there's always strong pushback. For that reason, Ryuji speculates that Schau Essen tried to somehow keep getting the product to consumers by reducing the count and slightly increasing the filling in each sausage.

In the exchange during filming, the conversation turned to the point that a price hike isn't a matter of anyone being at fault, which is exactly why it comes down to how it's done—in other words, a marketing problem. Even an unavoidable price increase can cause a backlash and damage the brand image if it's communicated poorly. Ryuji sees today's consumers as extremely sensitive, since the price of everything is going up while wages aren't. Ryuji gave examples: the Itten Toppa bento recently got flamed too, the food industry gets flamed easily no matter what it does, and restaurants get flamed if their hygiene is poor. Ryuji said they believe the rice issue is behind all this, but didn't explain any further. A staff member responded that they try to shop at cheap supermarkets.

As the conversation went on, Ryuji also brought out the Kunseiya they had supervised, half-jokingly saying "in case Marudai gets mad at me." This product apparently isn't being picked up much, and Ryuji thinks the reason is that its design resembles regular Kunseiya, so people assume it tastes the same. It has Ryuji's face on it, but the flavor is completely different. Ryuji explained that it has twice the meat juices of the original Kunseiya and that they came up with the spices, including onion, themselves, admitting the packaging was a mistake. Ryuji looked around in various places, but the only supermarket carrying it was one called Ozeki, and Ryuji called out to supermarket buyers: "Get it into Aeon, damn it."

First, they decided to eat the "reborn Schau Essen" on its own. The package says "bursting plump" and "more meaty," and the flavor might have changed too, so Ryuji wanted to check. Ryuji and the staff agreed it looked thicker than before.

The cooking method is to brown the outside in a frying pan without oil, then drizzle in a little water, cover with a lid, and steam. Ryuji says this is the easiest and tastiest way to cook it in a frying pan. The reason for steaming is that a frying pan alone only heats from the bottom surface, but adding water and steaming heats it from all sides so it warms through to the center. The reason for not using oil, Ryuji explained, is that oil makes the temperature get too high, so the casing splits and the juices run out. At one point during cooking, Ryuji joked that five sausages fit nicely in the frying pan—maybe that's an advantage.

Before the tasting, Ryuji returned to the topic of contracts. Ryuji says there's probably nobody in the industry who makes sausages and eats other companies' sausages. On top of that, Ryuji said they would absolutely never do business with a company that says, "If you work with us, don't eat other companies' products anymore," so such companies shouldn't bother reaching out. Ryuji also said this should show that the companies they work with are tolerant.

Ryuji believes that restricting delicious food is something to absolutely avoid, and since it narrows a cook's range, cooking experts shouldn't sign such contracts. Ryuji said quite a lot of the cooking experts they know have signed such contracts, but criticized those companies in strong terms, saying they dislike them and that it's as if they think of cooking experts as slaves.

The cooked Schau Essen was so taut its casing looked ready to burst, and Ryuji remarked, "That's good" and "The quality of the fat is good." Ryuji says the reason izakayas serve it under the Schau Essen name as-is is that it's delicious just grilled. Ryuji also joked that Toshinobu Kubota from the commercial was dancing in their head.

When a staff member mentioned the crisp snap of the casing, Ryuji said the snappiest casing actually belongs to Alt Bayern. Ryuji's assessment is that Schau Essen is a product of all-round quality, but its flavor is quite junky. Ryuji suggested it probably still sells because of its strong brand image, and summed up that comparing them side by side shows every product has its pros and cons.

Next, with a nod of apology to Schau Essen, Ryuji cooked their own Kunseiya. These are thicker, and with six per pack at 128g, there's more. As a selling point, Ryuji says it probably has the most juice of any sausage currently on the market. Ryuji added that it's sad people think it tastes the same. Even the aroma when cooking is completely different, Ryuji says; Schau Essen has its own Schau Essen aroma.

In the comparison, Ryuji said this one should taste better since they made it to suit their own palate, explaining that Kunseiya is spicy and that they designed it themselves to be juicy. The difference Ryuji pointed to was texture. Schau Essen has something crunchy and gristle-like, and things like lumps of fat, but Kunseiya doesn't, and it's a bit more finely ground. Ryuji also said that if you like that, Schau Essen is the only choice.

However, Ryuji emphasized that today is a "Schau Essen support session," so they didn't intend to decide which tastes better. Ryuji doesn't like bringing rivals down and would prefer a world where both can coexist—Schau Essen fans eat Schau Essen, Kunseiya fans eat Kunseiya. A staff member answered that the flavor felt stronger in Kunseiya, but they also really like Schau Essen's firm casing, so it was hard to choose, and Ryuji laughed and called it "a perfect answer."

Ryuji said they had also received various messages telling them to make Kunseiya additive-free. Ryuji countered by asking whether people were really saying that to them, of all people, when they use things like Ajinomoto, then stated that both Kunseiya and Schau Essen contain additives, but those are approved by the government and considered fine to eat in normal amounts, so there's no need to be that nervous about them. Ryuji's position is that it's fine as long as you don't overeat. Ryuji also said that whenever they do a taste comparison, people comment "it's just an ad for your own product in the end," and that's fine.

On the cooking side, Ryuji says the company itself says Schau Essen shouldn't be cut, and their own Kunseiya is also better left mostly uncut to keep the juices in. So Ryuji introduced "Schau Essen Gyoza," which they say they created for a Twitter sponsorship when they previously worked with Schau Essen. Ryuji said that if they had signed a competitor exclusivity contract with Marudai, they couldn't have done this, adding that they think Marudai will forgive them. Ryuji also stated clearly that they received no money at all from Schau Essen for this feature.

The method is simply to wrap Schau Essen in gyoza wrappers. You can wet the edges to seal them or not. Arrange them in an oiled frying pan, brown them, then add water, cover with a lid, and steam—the same way as pan-fried gyoza. They look exactly like gyoza, and it was mentioned that it's easy enough to make with kids, who would probably love it. Ryuji recalled that it's a favorite of theirs to have with drinks and a recipe that went pretty viral.

Once cooked, the wrappers are crisp, and you eat them with vinegar and pepper, or with gyoza sauce (vinegar, soy sauce, and chili oil). Ryuji said they prefer the vinegar and pepper, while the staff said both work well. Someone also suggested ketchup and mustard would probably be good. As for the role of the wrapper, Ryuji explained that the sausage alone doesn't soak up sauce, so the gyoza wrapper is there to coat it in sauce.

Making it for the first time in a while made Ryuji want to experiment, so they changed the cooking method for the second batch. Roll them around to brown the sides so every surface gets color, and since the sausages are already steamed, at the end add just a little water to coat everything. Ryuji concluded that this way is crispier and the best.

They made the same gyoza with Kunseiya too. Ryuji said that because Kunseiya is finely ground, it ends up more gyoza-like, and since the filling is strongly flavored, the verdict was that vinegar and pepper goes well with it. Ryuji said people would probably call trying it with Kunseiya an ad, but started to say they're not trying to sell it—then let slip their true feelings: "though I do want it to sell."

In closing, Ryuji reiterated that the promotion was handled badly, but some price increases and content changes are unavoidable given the times. Ryuji said Schau Essen contained 170g up until 2022, but now it's 107g.

As examples of the same phenomenon, Ryuji cited snacks like Country Ma'am and chocolate bars. A chocolate bar used to be around 100g, but now it's in the low 60s of grams. Because of this, when an old dessert recipe says "one chocolate bar," you have to start by looking up how many grams a chocolate bar was back then. Ryuji says that's why Ryuji's Buzz Recipes are written in grams.

Finally, Ryuji encouraged viewers to try both Schau Essen and Kunseiya. Then Ryuji suddenly said that their own Tabasco-style hot sauce, "Majisco," goes great on Kunseiya—why didn't they think of that?—and the video ends with Ryuji laughing at themself that, since it's all just ads for their own products in the end, they'll probably get flamed for jumping on the bandwagon.