It’s the one-year anniversary of Noodle Journey Noodle News! Here’s all the noteworthy noodle news you may have missed in January 2026. No discontinuations to report this month (thank goodness!), but lots of new noodle products were announced and came out last month. Read on for the rundown.
Pholicious Announces New Flavor That Isn’t Phở
I absolutely love Pholicious’s Beef and Chicken Phở flavors, but they’ve been pivoting to non-Vietnamese varieties since their Shark Tank episode first aired. Last year, they debuted Spicy Beef and Spicy Chicken Ramen bowls, both of which I will review eventually, and I expect I’ll have a lot of thoughts about yet another company doing spicy ramen. In any case, in an even further pivot from the Vietnamese recipes that made them famous, they announced in January that a new Pad Thai bowl will be coming out in March. Now on the one hand, it’s kind of cool that someone’s attempting an instant Pad Thai, because I think the only one I’ve ever seen is the pack made by Mama. But on the other hand, I feel like they should focus more on filling in some of the gaps in Vietnamese flavors that we don’t have in the USA. What about an instant Bún Bò Huế? Or Hủ Tiếu? Surely they could do some amazing things with those flavors. Oh well, maybe next time. Once March rolls around, I’ll see if there’s any demand for me to review the Pad Thai bowls.
Buldak Birria Appears in Very Specific Grocery Stores
Out of the blue last month, American shoppers started seeing a new Buldak flavor Samyang popping up in their local supermarkets: Buldak Birria. Like so many new Buldak products lately, there was no official announcement or fanfare that I could find, however I was able to do some sleuthing around, and it looks like Birria is currently exclusive to Albertson’s-owned grocery store chains, including Albertson’s, Vons, Safeway, Acme, and Jewel-Osco. Like many other Buldak flavors, they may start showing up in Targets or Walmarts or Asian markets, of course, but for right now, I don’t see them for sale anywhere else. I’ll be reviewing this one in the coming weeks!
Nissin Debuts Cup Noodles Wings Flavors
Speaking of things I’ll be reviewing soon, Nissin also pushed out a trio of new limited-time Cup Noodles flavors in January, timed to be released right before this year’s NFL championship “big game.” Did you know that the NFL can go after you for just saying the name of that championship game if they think you’re in any way using that name to profit off of their trademark? It’s kinda wild. But I’m also not risking my channel and website by saying the proper name, so I’ll just keep calling it the “big game.” People love to eat chicken wings during the “big game,” so Nissin’s new Cup Noodles are all popular chicken wing sauce flavors: Spicy Buffalo with Ranch, Garlic Parmesan, and Lemon Pepper. I think these have the potential to be anywhere from kinda good to downright awful, so check out my review when it comes out the Friday before the, you know, “big game.”
A-Sha Announces Spongebob Ramen Cups
And the final new product from January is a cute little collaboration between A-Sha and Nickelodeon: Spongebob Squarepants Good Noodles Instant Ramen. This product line consists of three cup ramen flavors with Spongebob characters adorning the cups: Spongebob Ready for Ramen (Rich and Creamy Tonkotsu), Patrick Miso Hungry (Smooth and Savory Miso), and Squidward Showstopping Shoyu (Light and Flavorful Soy Sauce). You can currently order the cups in six-packs of each flavor from Amazon or Walmart for about $27 per six-pack. I’m interested in reviewing these, but probably won’t buy them until they go on sale since that’s kind of a lot to spend just to get three noodle cups for a review. No word from A-Sha on if these will start appearing in stores anytime soon, but keep your eyes peeled just in case they end up on Walmart shelves in the near future.
