This isn’t a review so much as a summary and ranking of the 12 current Marutai “Local Series” varieties that preceded this episode. Some of these are harder to find than others, and of course they’re all import items so they may cost a bit more, so my goal here is to help you decide which of these you should buy.
Read more: Noodle Journey Episode 60: Marutai Local Series Round UpI know the abundance of flavors in Marutai’s Local Series can seem a little intimidating, but this isn’t even every product that Marutai makes, it’s just the entirety of their most famous exported product line. If you haven’t checked out the last 12 reviews yet, I urge you to at least skim them to see what might interest you as far as styles and flavors. If you just want the list without any of the insight, skip down to near the end of this article.
Before we get into it, let me just mention that as of the time of this review, some of the third party Amazon prices have gone up from where they were earlier in the year. Just keep checking if you’re intent on ordering from Amazon. I mentioned in all the reviews that I also recommend Yamibuy.com as a source for these. I have ordered from them multiple times and they’re great, just make sure you’re ordering direct from them and not one of their third party sellers to avoid any issues. I’ve seen plenty of Redditors say they find some of these in their local Asian markets. And I’ve confirmed with some Canadian ramen enthusiasts that some Walmarts in Canada even stock these. So this stuff is out there and of course it’s all very highly recommended. Now then, let’s break these down.
I’m going to start with some categorizing. All of these, all 12 packs, contain some measure of chicken, pork, and seafood extract, but we can organize them by which is the dominant broth ingredient slash flavor. We have 5 tonkotsu flavors, 2 chicken broth based flavors, a kind of spicy hybrid of chicken and pork, 2 seafood shoyu flavors, 1 beef broth, and 1 red miso broth.
So which one should you buy? Well, the easy cop out answer is… any of them. They’re all pretty amazingly good and mostly best-in-class for their respective recipes. Like, for example, the Miyazaki Tori Shio is absolutely the best chicken soup ramen I’ve ever had. This Hokkaido Sapporo Miso is now my favorite red miso soup. If you know you like a particular flavor or style of ramen, then buy that one first. I gave every single one of these scores of 9 and above. You’re not likely to get something you think is bad unless your tastebuds and mine are way out of alignment. The noodles are all top notch, with the 2 Hokkaido varieties having thick noodles, the Hakata having the thinnest, and all the rest somewhere in between. So if you like a certain type of noodle, that’s something to consider.
But what if your only experience with ramen is, say, Top Ramen or Instant Lunch or something like that, and you’re ready to jump into the deep end and buy a premium import from Japan and Marutai is the one you want? Well, that’s a great decision. And let’s do some ranking and elimination and figure it out.
So this Miyazaki Tori Shio, like I said, is my favorite chicken ramen period. But because of its simplicity it’s also the lowest I scored any of these, so this isn’t my top choice. It’s out of the running. Last place. Likewise, I gave the Oita Torigara Shoyu and the Hokkaido Asahikawa Soybean both 9.5s, so pretty great but not perfect. So those are spots 10 and 11 respectively.
That leaves 9 perfect 10 scores. This is where it gets tough. Let’s get rid of the flavors that I think are probably going to be a little divisive. The Miyazaki Karamen is spicy, so unless you only want spicy ramen, I think this is a safe elimination for the number 9 spot. Also the Agodashi with its strong fish flavor is probably not going to appeal to everyone. I mean, I love it, but that’s out at number 8. While tonkotsu is a wonderful flavor that Marutai is known for, I think the strong, almost gamey taste of the Kurume Tonkotsu means it sadly has to go out at number 7. And I am also certain that the Lemon Tonkotsu is not going to be for everyone, so that’s out at number 6. Likewise the charred onion flavor of this Kagoshima Kurobuta Tonkotsu is going to turn some people off, so let’s put that at number 5. And finally, if you don’t love the bold, fermented flavor of red miso, you’re going to want to skip the Hokkaido Sapporo Miso, and it almost hurts to put that one at number 4 because I found it so tasty, but not everyone loves strong miso flavor.
So that leaves the top 3: 2 tonkotsu flavors and the Saga Gyu Shio, which is the beef stock ramen. Well, you didn’t decide to order fancy ramen from Japan and just get beef soup, right? You probably want tonkotsu. So while it pains me to eliminate such an amazing beef-based ramen, this is going in the number 3 spot.
So this our top 2 is the Hakata Soy Sauce Tonkotsu and the Kumamoto Kuromayu Tonkotsu, and it comes down to this: do you like garlic? If the answer is kind of yes, buy the one I started with in the first review, the Hakata Soy Sauce Tonkotsu. If the answer is hell yes, buy the Kumamoto Kuromayu Tonkotsu. If the answer is no, you might as well be dead to me. But in all seriousness you can’t really escape garlic in Japanese ramen, but that one’s mostly free of any super strong garlic flavor. Chances are if you go to a ramen restaurant in the USA, these are going to be the closest to what you would find there, and these are a hell of a lot cheaper and pretty close to restaurant quality already.
So yes, the Hakata Soy Sauce Tonkotsu is a safe, tasty 2nd place, and my number 1 is the Kumamoto Kuromayu Tonkotsu. You may feel differently, but I’m only here as a guide based on my personal tastes. But again, my cop out answer is that I really do love all of these and would probably buy any or all of them again based on my mood.
Here’s the final, formatted ranking for those of you who skipped to the end here:
- 12: Miyazaki Toro Shio
- 11: Hokkaido Asahikawa Soybean
- 10: Oita Torigara Shoyu
- 9: Miyazaki Karamen
- 8: Nagasaki Agodashi Shoyu
- 7: Kurume Tonkotsu
- 6: Setouchi Lemon Tonkotsu
- 5: Kagoshima Kurobuta Tonkotsu
- 4: Hokkaido Sapporo Miso
- 3: Saga Gyu Shio
- 2: Hakata Shoyu Tonkotsu
- 1: Kumamoto Kuromayu Tonkotsu
Now, if you’re still undecided or you want to sample a bunch of these, you can find some variety packs of Marutai on Amazon and other sites that package together some, but not all, of the Local Series flavors. Sometimes these are just assembled by a third party seller with what they have on hand. But specifically, there is a 7-pack of most of the ramen from Kyushu that contains 1 each of the Hakata Soy Sauce Tonkotsu, Kumamoto Kuromayu Tonkotsu, Kagoshima Kurobuta Tonkotsu, Saga Gyu Shio, Miyazaki Tori Shio, Oita Torigara Shoyu, and Nagasaki Agodashi Soy sauce. So this is a pretty good variety of flavors -they’re all 10s except for these 2- and that would definitely give you some awesome meals. If you choose to go that route, you will be paying for the convenience of getting all of those flavors in one box rather than buying them individually. So it’s on the high end of the price range. Currently at the time of this review it’s $55 on Amazon while it’s still available, so that works out to over $7 per pack. It’s not crazy, but you could definitely do better ordering these piecemeal if you shop around. Your choice. And then of course, you don’t get the others that I’ve reviewed, you just get that one assortment.
There’s not much else to say about Marutai at this point. I urge you to buy any and all of these Marutai products based on what interests your tastebuds, because I don’t think you’ll be disappointed no matter which one you choose or which ones you choose. And as always, I will try to get my hands on more Marutai varieties that I haven’t reviewed yet in the future.
