I’m kicking off my annual December Marutai tradition with a Sapporo Ichiban x Marutai Tonkotsu Ramen mega-review! These are three collaboration products that, from what I can put together, are manufactured by Marutai with Sapporo Ichiban/Sanyo Foods acting as the North American distributor: Hakata-Style Original Tonkotsu, Kagoshima-Style Creamy Tonkotsu, and Kumamoto-Style Garlic Tonkotsu ramen. This whole holiday marathon started in my first year on YouTube when my wife bought me 12 Marutai varieties and I did a 12-days countdown, and now this is what December looks like on the channel and website. Marutai is my favorite instant ramen company, and I’m always excited to catch up on new releases.
Read more: Noodle Journey Episode 204: Sapporo Ichiban x Marutai Tonkotsu Ramen Mega-ReviewFrom what I’ve been able to piece together from the Sapporo Ichiban website, Marutai appears to be partnered with Sanyo Foods to help distribute these in the US with English-friendly packaging. Historically, the Japanese-only Marutai flavors show up in smaller Asian grocery stores and online shops like Yamibuy, but these Sapporo Ichiban branded packs appear to be exported for wider distribution in the US and Canada. I bought these from Mitsuwa Marketplace, and they should be findable in other Asian grocery stores and online as well.
Hakata-Style Original Tonkotsu
This is basically an export version of the white packaged Hakata tonkotsu I reviewed in my first marathon back in Episode 48. Hakata is the region in Japan that this recipe originated from, and the idea here is a basic soy sauce and pork-flavored tonkotsu style broth paired with textured noodles meant to imitate a more floury finish than typical ramen noodles.
Inside the pack are two complete servings of non-fried noodles, two soup bases, and two seasoning oils. The straight noodles are a simple wheat flour, salt, and kansui recipe. The broth contains vegetable powder, soy sauce, garlic, onion, MSG, sesame seeds, and various other spices. The seasoning oil is listed as palm oil, sesame oil, garlic oil, and onion oil. This one (and the others) is also surprisingly vegan, and the sodium level in a single serving is 1660mg, which is notably lower than the 2300mg in the Japanese version. Aromatically, it smells like tonkotsu powder with a lot of sesame oil, plus a good onion smell, and it avoids that skunky yeast-extract-and-sesame-oil vibe that sometimes shows up in artificial tonkotsu.
Noodles:
These thin straight noodles have an excellent chew with great bounciness, and they come across incredibly close to restaurant quality for an instant noodle. The export version doesn’t feel like it tinkers with the noodle recipe at all.
• 10/10
Spiciness:
No spice in here whatsoever.
• 0/10
Overall:
This is a textbook tonkotsu, and it’s genuinely surprising that it’s plant-based. The consistency is first class, with a nice oiliness on top and a rich, creamy broth that still feels delicate and clean. The flavor is savory and balanced, with onion, ginger, and sesame working together without veering too far into any one direction. The umami comes across extremely close to real pork, and it pulls it off without turning weird or seeming overly reliant on any shortcut ingredient. It also stays away from going too hard on onion or garlic, since those are clearly saved for the other two packs. This is the kind of instant tonkotsu that feels like the epitome of what instant ramen can be, and it nails the job even without animal products.
• 10/10
Kagoshima-Style Creamy Tonkotsu
This one is labeled “creamy,” but the name feels a little misleading because it’s not just creaminess that sets it apart from the Hakata flavor. The Japanese counterpart is the black pack I reviewed back in Episode 59, and that version got its extra richness from a specific breed of pig from Kagoshima. The other defining element here is the use of scorched green onion called “kogashi-negi,” which brings a caramelized onion flavor to the broth, and you can see it in the bowl once it’s finished. The Japanese version is one of my favorites, so I’m hoping this export version holds up.
This one uses the same basic configuration as the first pack, with the same straight non-fried noodles, a powdered broth base, and seasoning oil, and it’s also two servings. The ingredients are largely the same as the Hakata flavor with additional thickening agents, and there are fried leek chips in the powder that bring the caramelized onion character. Sodium for a single serving is 2200mg. The aroma hits with a strong whiff of onion, and the finished bowl has caramelized leek chips floating around, with a darker shade of brown than the first one.
Noodles:
Same noodle performance as the first pack, with the same high-end chew and bounce.
• 10/10
Spiciness:
No spice here either.
• 0/10
Overall:
This is outstanding. The broth doesn’t necessarily come across as creamier than the original Hakata flavor, but the consistency is still excellent with a nice thickness, and the artificial pork flavor once again comes across as nearly indistinguishable from the Japanese counterpart. Flavor-wise, it dials back the ginger compared to the original and puts more emphasis on pork and the onion elements, and the scorched onion aspect reads as sweetness and nuttiness rather than bitterness. The caramelized leek chips make the whole thing feel more distinct, and there’s even a neat little tonkotsu foam that develops on top. There’s nothing negative to say about it, and it tastes exactly like a premium onion-forward tonkotsu.
• 10/10
Kumamoto-Style Garlic Tonkotsu
This is the Kumamoto-style garlic tonkotsu, and the original Japanese version is one of my favorites of all time. If you want to see that earlier review, it’s Episode 58, and the Japanese version is the Marutai variety in the red pack with meat extract. This style is characterized by three different types of garlic powder added to the soup base, and it also finishes with a black garlic oil.
I forgot to say it in the video, but the sodium in this is an insane 2760mg per serving, so do watch out if that bothers you. This one follows the same overall configuration and is also completely plant-based, with straight noodles, a powdered soup base with extra garlic, and a black garlic seasoning oil. The finished bowl has a punchy garlic aroma that smells exactly like the Japanese version, with strong garlic plus soy and sesame notes. The black garlic oil here is described as mayu, a scorched garlic oil made by intentionally burning garlic with sesame oil to create a garlicky, nutty, slightly bitter finish.
Noodles:
Once again, the noodles are perfection, matching the same restaurant-adjacent chew and bounce from the other two packs.
• 10/10
Spiciness:
Zero spice.
• 0/10
Overall:
This has all the same soy-umami goodness from the first two flavors, but now there’s a bold garlic backbone running through everything. The garlic comes through exactly the way this style should, and the mayu adds a nice oily, slightly scorched finish that gives the broth color and depth without turning the experience unpleasant. It still turns out (unsurprisingly) as thick and satisfying as the others, and the flavor stays remarkably close to the Japanese counterpart even though it’s plant-based, to the point where any difference is hard for me to pin down. This is the kind of ramen that makes the plant-based detail feel irrelevant because the broth is doing the job so well, and the garlic-forward direction is fully committed.
• 10/10
