It’s been a while since I took a look at one of these Nissin Cup Noodles flavors from Hong Kong, but back when I reviewed the Black Pepper Crab flavor, it ended up being one of my favorites ever. I’m very curious to see how this one goes. If you want to know how this Nissin Cup Noodles Artificial Beef Flavor differs from the American Cup Noodles, read on!
Read more: Review: Nissin Cup Noodles Artificial Beef Flavor (Hong Kong)
Despite being manufactured for sale in China, you’ll also most likely spot these at your local Asian market for about $1.99 or online at places like Yamibuy.com for around the same price. And no, this is not the beef flavored cup you’ll see at your typical Walmart or American supermarket for a bit cheaper. There’s basically a whole world of Cup Noodles made specifically for the Chinese market, and since most of them are devoid of real chicken, beef, or pork, they get much easier to find outside of China.
And so you might ask yourself, what’s the point of getting the Hong Kong export of the beef flavor when I can just walk into Walmart and buy Cup Noodles Beef made in America? I’m glad you asked. This is pretty different in both good and bad ways, depending on how you look at it. Calling this simply “beef” flavor might make you think of your typical savory beef instant ramen but this is actually a Chinese five spice beef flavor, something you won’t find in the one made in America. To me, that’s a plus, because that makes this a far more interesting flavor than I’m used to getting out of beef noodles. The downside is that the American Beef Cup Noodles use actual beef fat in the powder, while this uses artificial beef flavoring like yeast and maltodextrin. Import restrictions mean that it’s just easier to use artificial flavoring than it is to put real beef in here and get it from Hong Kong to the US. So it’s a trade-off.
This has a sodium count of 1550mg, which is not insane for a beef-flavored ramen cup.
Opening the lid, you can see noodles, broth powder, and dried vegetables. The broth powder has MSG, soy sauce, onion, yeast extract, and other flavorings to simulate beef, plus some nondescript spices. The dried ingredients are carrot, corn, green onion, and some big chunks of textured soy protein to mimic real beef.
Noodles:
Typical Cup Noodles. Nothing special, a little soft, but not bad.
- 5/10
Spiciness:
There’s barely any heat to this at all. It feels ever so slightly tingly because of that five spice, but I don’t think it’s anything that will offend most spice haters.
- 1/10
Overall:
First things first, I am impressed with the approximation of beef flavor here without using real beef. It’s pretty close to the real thing, and I’ll bet purists won’t notice. It’s a nice, savory “beef” broth that comes from yeast, soy, and whatever other food chemistry magic Nissin puts into making fake beef broth. The saltiness feels right for this, not veering into inedibly salty territory. The Chinese five spice flavor comes through underneath that beefy finish, and it is especially evident in the soy protein, which is pretty well-seasoned with it. The main downside with this cup for me is that those nice, big pieces of soy protein are pretty far off from real beef, and the largest ones had a very unappealing, fibrous texture to me. The smaller ones were fine, at least. The other vegetables rehydrated well. All in all, this is a pretty decent beef-flavored cup and is certainly worth a try if you’re bored of other beef-flavored noodles. Just be wary of the chewiness of those larger soy protein pieces.
- 7/10
