Nissin Top Ramen Beef Flavor with Bachan’s Sweet & Spicy Barbecue Sauce is the second of three collaboration products between Nissin and Bachan’s Japanese Barbecue Sauce that I’m reviewing, and for me I am now out of the familiar territory that I was in with the Original flavor, because I’ve never had the Sweet & Spicy sauce on its own before. The Original flavor paired very well with the beef broth, but my chief complaint about Bachan’s Original has always been how sweet it leans. Is the “Sweet” in “Sweet & Spicy” going to be overkill for me? Read on and find out.
The Verdict:
| Product: | Nissin Top Ramen Beef Flavor with Bachan’s Sweet & Spicy Barbecue Sauce |
| Origin: | Japan (Manufactured in the USA) |
| Noodle Quality: | 6.5/10 |
| Spice Level: | 3/10 |
| Overall Score: | 4.5/10 |
This is a limited-time flavor exclusive to Walmart, priced at $1.47 at the time of this review. Head to your nearest Walmart store if you want to buy this or the other two flavors.
Inside the bowl, we’ve got the same Top Ramen noodles you’ll find in the normal Beef flavor bowls, a soup pouch, vegetable pouch, and sauce pouch. The soup powder appears to be the normal Beef flavor broth powder: beef fat, egg white, garlic powder, onion powder, soy, and various flavorings and preservatives. The vegetables are once again corn, green onion, leek, and red bell pepper. And the sauce pouch is the Bachan’s Sweet & Spicy sauce, containing soy sauce, cane sugar, jalapeno peppers, mirin, tomato paste, ginger, green onion, rice vinegar, garlic, salt, and sesame oil. The total sodium is the same as in the Original bowl: a hefty 1890mg.
Noodles:
The same Top Ramen noodles I’ve reviewed twice before now. Not bad.
- 6.5/10
Spiciness:
This is a fairly gentle heat, which is no surprise considering these are jalapeno peppers and not something more potent like habanero. Should be extremely easy to handle for most spice lovers.
- 3/10
Overall:
Like I alluded to above, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to enjoy this one going into it – not because of the “Spicy” aspect, mind you, but because of the “Sweet” one. If there’s one thing Bachan’s doesn’t need more of, in my opinion, it’s sweetness, plus the Top Ramen Beef powder itself is already a little bit sweet from the ginger element. So I thought that the sweetness was going to clobber me, but it turns out that it’s not really any sweeter than Bachan’s Original flavor. Rather, it has the added bonus of a very pronounced jalapeno pepper flavor to it in addition to the elevated heat level. However, there’s something “off” about the jalapeno flavor that I can’t quite put my finger on that makes it feel artificial to me or like it’s interacting with the other sauce ingredients in a way I don’t love. It could also be that there is capsaicin oil in the sauce in addition to the actual pepper flavor extract, which makes things bitter and slightly chemical-feeling. And to be clear, I do like jalapenos – I cook with them a lot and buy jalapeno-flavored snacks, but there’s just something not right about this to me. Whatever the case, I thought it was the sweet element I wouldn’t enjoy about this one, but it turns out it’s the spicy element bringing it down for me, and it’s entirely from the odd flavor of the pepper. The rest of the bowl is fine and as-expected: good quantity of flakes, alright noodles, and reasonably solid beef base. I just could not ignore the aftertaste of the sauce, and while I did end up finishing the bowl (it was my lunch, after all), it wasn’t something I’d ever buy again, in Top Ramen form or in standalone Bachan’s sauce form. One more of these to go!
- 4.5/10
Continuing the Journey
- Missed the previous Top Ramen x Bachan’s review? Check out Nissin Top Ramen Beef Flavor with Bachan’s Original Barbecue Sauce.
- For a cleaner, tastier jalapeno-flavored soup, I highly recommend Paldo Kokomen Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup.
- For even more chili pepper broths, check out the products in the Samyang Picantia Noodle Soup line.
