I’m moving to the next item in my Chef Woo marathon queue, which is Chef Woo Spicy Tequila Lime Flavor Ramen. This one’s pretty interesting to me, considering I can’t recall ever seeing a tequila & lime flavored instant noodle before. Is this essentially going to be a margarita-flavored ramen? Because I’m not sure how to feel about that…
Read more: Review: Chef Woo Spicy Tequila Lime Flavor RamenAll kidding aside, I am aware that tequila can be used in sauces and marinades, and while I’m not the biggest tequila aficionado, I’m cautiously optimistic about how it could be used in a broth like this.
Now, back when I was writing the news roundup that inspired this mini-marathon, it was noted by the Redditor who reported the Chef Woo shortage that this flavor (along with the next, final one in my review queue) was removed from the Chef Woo website fairly recently. Is this a casualty of Borealis Foods’ brand restructuring? I can’t say with certainty, but if you want to try this flavor, now is probably the time to buy it if you see it somewhere.
Just like the last two reviews, you’re looking at 20g of protein added into these noodles. The sodium is once again fairly medium (for instant noodles anyway) at 1200mg.
From an ingredients perspective, you can see the same block of noodles under the lid as we’ve seen in the previous Chef Woo products, now with what appears to be a reddish-brown powdered vegetable broth. That powder contains salt, sugar, soy sauce, mushroom powder, yeast, lime crystals, and nonspecific “spices.” Funny enough, tequila is not specifically listed as an ingredient, although it may fall under the umbrella of “spices” or “natural flavors.” There are also dried vegetables, including carrot, onion, red bell pepper, peas, and corn, which I think it’s safe to say is the only vegetable mix Chef Woo uses in this product range.
Noodles:
Same rough, chewy noodles as in the other Chef Woo cups.
- 4.5/10
Spiciness:
There was a decent amount of heat on the first sip, but nothing too crazy. This is a mild-to-medium spice level with a slight linger on my tongue.
- 3/10
Overall:
Honestly, this is a pretty solid flavor. While we can debate the noodle texture all day, I do like this broth, and the vegetable content is as solid as it was in the last two cups. The lime flavor in the broth is there and isn’t super overpowering, serving as more of a background note to the broth’s vegetable-forward umami. It may be disappointing to hear, but to me here’s nothing in particular that really shows up as “tequila” flavored here – maybe there’s a slightly sweet agave-like quality, but certainly nothing I would point as being smoky like some tequila. Plus there’s already citrus in this broth from the lime, so if there’s an additional citrus element from tequila, I can’t distinguish it. That’s not to say this is bad at all, but just that they could’ve named this flavor “chili lime” and I would’ve been like, “Sure, that’s accurate.” Slapping the word “tequila” on it feels more gimmicky than flavor-accurate, if that makes sense. Anyway, putting aside whether or not I think this tastes like tequila, I do like it. If this is indeed discontinued, it’s a shame because I definitely prefer it over the Roasted Chicken and Braised Beef cups, and probably would’ve bought more had I known it was going away.
- 7/10
