Instant ramen brand Cup Noodle is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, marking a long period of success in Japan and overseas. While Cup Noodle products aren’t common in Australia, many will be familiar with the brand for its position in pop culture. It’s been included in video game costumes and advertising, on Uniqlo t-shirts, and the brand even has its own museum in Yokohama. Now, it’s adding something else to its long list of wild collaborations: ramen-flavoured soft drink.
To celebrate the company’s longevity, Cup Noodles is set to launch four ramen-flavoured soft drinks in Japan, with each representing a flavour from the Cup Noodles range. The first is a basic ramen drink, but then there’s also a seafood ramen-flavoured drink, a curry flavour and even a chilli tomato variant.
The basic ramen soft drink reportedly emulates ginger ale with salty sauce and pepper, the seafood variant will be like creaming soda, the curry flavour will be like a spicy Coke and the chilli tomato soft drink is described as having a tingly tomato base.
And yes, all of them will contain some elements of ramen.
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According to Cup Noodles (via SoraNews24), each flavour will faithfully “reproduce the flavour of its corresponding Cup Noodle, only in carbonated drink form”.
So if you’ve ever wanted to gulp down an entire bowl of ramen in one swig, these might be the drinks for you. If even the thought makes your stomach turn, consider that you might not be worthy of this excellence. Seafood, ramen and creaming soda, all in one gulp? It sounds hideous, but count us in.
In a tweet, the company confirmed excited fans could preorder the drinks from Amazon and the Nissin store online, but it does appear they’ll only be shipped to those living in Japan. If you’re keen to try them out, there are ways around this (using a shipping service, for one) but they may end up being imported to Australia anyway.
Stores like IGA and other specialists will often import rare drinks from overseas, so if fizzy liquid ramen sounds like something you’d be happy to imbibe, keep an eye on the horizon for more. This is one wild idea that just may work.