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Today's entry in my big pile of Buldak noodles is a newer, limited-time bowl product with one of the weirdest names that I've ever seen: Samyang Buldak Hotter Than My Ex. Maybe this has caught your attention if you've seen it online; there seems to be a lot of confusion as to what this product is supposed to be, so I figured, why not? Let's do a review of it.
These are brand new from Nongshim and I'm willing to bet a lot of you who clicked on this review have been waiting for these for months. They're finally here, but there is a major issue you should know about so make sure you read through the whole intro (or watch the video linked above) and I'll talk about it. Welcome to the mega review of Nongshim's KPop Demon Hunters Shin Ramyun Cups.
Working my way through my big backlog of Buldak (the bi-weekly Buldak big backlog binge, if you will) today's review is one of the newer flavors that I teased a while back. This is Samyang Buldak Swicy Sweet & Spicy Ramen.
Samyang is really embracing the Mexican-Korean fusion trend lately. In the past, we've seen the brand release flavors like Corn, Habanero Lime, and Taco. Now, the company has finally released a flavor that many viewers have been asking me to review: Samyang Buldak Birria Spicy Ramen. If you aren't familiar with birria, it is a Mexican stew traditionally made with goat and slowly simmered in a rich consommé broth, though more commonly (especially in the US), it is often made with beef or sometimes chicken. While birria tacos have been around for a long time, birria went viral in the last few years because of people making "birria ramen" by mixing the meat and consommé with ramen noodles. I live near a phenomenal Asian-Mexican fusion restaurant, and I thought the Tapatio Birria Ramen was excellent, so I have a bit of a bias and high expectations for how an instant version should taste.
This is the first mega-review of 2026 and it covers the full launch lineup of Nongshim Ramyun Chef, a brand-new product line positioned as restaurant-quality instant noodles. The four launch flavors are Beef Bulgogi, Braised Beef, Curry Chicken, and Creamy Garlic Chicken. Nongshim is framing this line as globally-inspired dishes executed using Korean ramyun, with three of the four of the flavors leaning hard into fusion territory.
Samyang Buldak Sweet Ramen is a bowl-only (currently) Buldak product aimed squarely at people who like the flavor of Buldak sauce but find the original versions a little too intense. This bowl released around the same time as the Taco flavor and not long before Samyang introduced “Swicy,” a very similar-looking but still distinct product. Sweet is positioned as a toned-down, slightly sweeter take on the classic hot chicken sauce rather than a major departure from the formula.
Dongwon Cheese Topokki is the other Korean rice cake variety from this manufacturer that I found recently at Walmart, and given how delicious I thought the Spicy and Sweet flavor was, I figured I'd better try this one too so I know what to stock up on next time I find myself in a Walmart. This variety leans into one of the other more popular preparations of tteokbokki/topokki: a rich and mild chili, cream, and cheese sauce.
Like a lot of my recent noodle purchases, I found this bowl of Nongshim Soon Tofu Noodles at my local Grocery Outlet and grabbed it right away. I've tried Nongshim Soon before and found it to be a very good vegan option, delivering some light spice and solid vegetable-forward umami flavor, kind of like a toned-down version of the classic Nongshim Shin. While I've found better vegan options from both Nongshim and Samyang, Soon is certainly easy to find and scratches a certain kind of itch. This one, by all appearances, appears to be the standard Soon formula with an added block of tofu in the bowl. Let's see how it all comes together!
Way, way, way back in episode 9 on the channel, I reviewed a classic from Samyang: their plain old original flavor ramen in the orange packaging. And it was really good. At the time, I made a note to myself that I would like to try the South Korean version of Samyang Original Ramen someday to see how it compares to the export version, so lo and behold that day is now! This product dates all the way back to 1963 and seems to be pretty much a staple in South Korea.
This is an interesting-sounding product that Nongshim stealthily discontinued selling in the USA recently during their big website/product line refresh: Nongshim Gamjatangmyun. That's a shame, because at least on paper, this isn't something I've really seen from any other Korean noodle manufacturers. I just so happen to still have one of these I picked up a while back, so this review is here in case Nongshim ever brings this flavor back to the US or if any of you would like to buy it from South Korea. I believe this may also still be available in other markets under the name "Kamjatangmyun."