Hungry people everywhere have been slurping up this form of low-cost sustenance ever since.
In fact, demand has never been higher.
It’s no wonder why.
Photos: Brands. Design: Eat This, Not That!
But, which style offers the most satisfying slurp?
Grab your chopsticks and soup spoon, and dig in.
A 1.5-ounce cup of the specialty grocer’s Spicy Miso variety cost me just $1.89.
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The noodles weighed just 1.3 ounces on my digital kitchen scale.
Most other ramen brands in this survey provided at least an ounce more per serving.
The look: Like a Minestrone.
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The soup is a dark reddish color with flecks with green herbs.
The noodles are long, off-white, and crimped.
The taste: Spicy but thin.
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Perhaps that’s because the powdered seasoning doesn’t mix as easily as other brands.
The noodles, meanwhile, felt chewier and less tender than othersand certainly far less abundant.
Nevertheless, I wanted to give this one a fair chance.
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Mike’s Mighty Good aims to “make ramen bar quality ramen accessible to everyone.”
Similar to the Trader Joe’s version, the noodles took longer to cook than the packaging indicated.
With some extra steeping time, however, the stiff tangled strands eventually unraveled into something edible.
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The taste:“Insanely rich?”
Well, I wouldn’t go that far.
If you’re looking for spicy heat, however, this is not the cup for you.
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It’s completely lacking in that department.
The noodles, meanwhile, felt gummymuch more so than others.
What’s unclear is whether the extra steeping time took things too far.
Chris Shott for Eat This, Not That!
Regardless, these noodles are far from foolproof.
Even all these years later, the company continues to wield a dominant presence.
Just this past fall, the companyannounced plansto build its third massive manufacturing facility in the United States.
Chris Shott for Eat This, Not That!
It came with a single packet of orangish-yellow seasoning.
The look: Pretty basic.
The soup is a bright yellow color that takes on an eerily iridescent greenish tone the longer it sits.
The noodles are the same pale and curly strands you probably remember from your cash-strapped student days.
The taste: Antiseptic.
This soup doesn’t taste like chicken at all to meit smacks of heavy doses of celery salt.
The noodles also cook up nicely within the directed timeframe.
They are soft and slurpable.
Even so, the odd-flavored broth makes this hard pass from me.
I picked up this 2.2-ounceSpicy Tonkotsucup from a local grocer for $2.79.
The last one is added only after cooking.
The look:Milky like Mike’s (the ingredients include non-dairy cream).
The noodles are pale and slender with a slight curl.
There’s a lot of them, too.
This is one cup where the noodles might actually fill up more space than the soup!
The taste: Unevenly spicy.
Some sips were harsh enough to make me cough, while others seemed much milder.
The skinny noodles offered a firm bite and sufficiently carried the flavor of the soup.
Overall, I’d describe this Snapdragon variety as a solid middle-of-the-road option.
It’s tasty and adequately filling but not especially remarkable in any way.
It’s also more expensive than most brands.
The bright yellow package set me back $5.99 at Whole Foods.
It comes with a single packet of gray-colored, powdered seasoning.
The look: Really beefy, especially for a completely meatless broth.
The broth reveals several layers of flavor with a very slight tingle of spicy heat.
Also, I didn’t get much of the numbing sensation that normally comes from Sichuan peppercorns.
A 3.8-ounce package cost me $5.69 at Whole Foods.
The taste:Super savory.
Though it doesn’t pack much punch, heat-wise, the umami level is off the charts.
The soy-based broth is extremely flavorful yet light bodied with a clean finish.
The noodles are good, toosupple, silky, and easily slurpableamong the best that I tried.
Yet, as tasty as these components are on their own, they don’t really mesh well together.
Whatever the reason, it’s not a very cohesive dish.
It also includes bits of powdered cooked chicken.
The look: Hearty.
The soup is dark red and the veggies pop with bright color upon rehydration.
The taste: Potently peppery.
The spicy heat is enough to make your sinuses drip, but the tingly burn is enjoyable.
So did the unusually shaped noodles.
I picked up mine at the warehouse for just $11.99that’s less than $2 per bowl.
The look:Robust.
There’s a visible depth to this soup, whether you add the spicy oil or not.
If you go the mild route, the broth looks creamy and luscious.
If you want the extra zing, it takes on a rich, red-orange hue.
You’ll also notice big slices of real garlic and ample pieces of green onion in the mix.
The noodles are plentiful, curvaceous, and more yellow than white.
The taste: Harmonious.
The savory broth packs more flavor and clings to the noodles more cohesively than all the others.
I tried this one both plain and spicyboth ways are incredibly delicious.
