Browsing along the endless aisles of food in HMart, junior Nicole Lee’s eye caught sight of a variety of spicy cup noodles. From this wide assortment of selections, she decided to buy an assortment for her and fellow juniors William Norwood and Divya Vadlakonda to try, hoping to see which were the tastiest and which lived up to their expectations of being unbearably spicy.
#0: Initial Expectations
Nicole: As someone who has come from a spice-intolerant family and finds even hot Cheetos, curry or laksa soup to be too spicy, I came prepared with a cold boba milk tea and braced myself for the spice.
Will: As a white person, I find my ability to eat spicy food is often underrated, but I consider myself to have a pretty high spice tolerance. I was looking forward to eating the noodles, but was slightly nervous to let my family down.
Divya: If I failed to ingest every scrap of noodle on that plate I would be a failure to my bloodline. While I am considered the least spice-tolerant member of my family, I firmly believed that I would at least be better than the others.
#1: Shin Ramen Red – Original spicy
Nicole: 5.5/10 spice — After eating a few bites, I found myself wanting to eat more noodles and drink more soup. The noodles were quite spicy, so I had to be wary of eating too much at a time. That being said, they were light enough that I could probably finish the whole cup if I wanted to — something I didn’t expect initially.
Will: 4/10 spice — I took my first bite and expected to be underwhelmed by the flavor; however, the spice was nice and had a burst of flavor. The noodles were not that spicy, and I found myself wanting more.
Divya: 5/10 spice — We started out with a simple, mild noodle. It was flavorful without the spice being too overpowering. The taste was very similar to umami, though I was beginning to become weary of how spicy the proceeding noodles would be, considering this was the least spicy in the lineup. I took seconds of this delicious, MSG-flavored delicacy.
#2: Shin Ramen Black — Beef Broth Soup
Nicole: 4/10 spice — At first glance, I thought these cup noodles would be the spiciest out of all the noodles due to the flaming, black packaging. After a bite, though, I found the spice levels were perfect — not too spicy I’d be unable to finish it, but spicy enough that it felt like a little bit of a sting. The taste of the beef broth soup also complimented the spice really well, so I’d rate the flavor 10/10.
Will & Divya: N/A the food was not suitable for vegetarians.
#3: Buldak Spicy Noodles — Cheese
Nicole: 8/10 spice — Because these noodles were cheese-flavored, I took my first bite with the false preconception the noodles weren’t going to be spicy. I was correct for all of five seconds before the spice kicked in, which was delicious but made me fear another bite.
Will: 7.5/10 spice — The word cheese has a connotation of cooling the levels of spice, so I felt betrayed after these noodles only got spicier the more they rested in my mouth. I was in an internal battle between the spice and the cheesy creamy flavor, yet I kept going.
Divya: 8/10 spice — Looking back at this experience I can still taste the cheese in my nose. To label the taste “cheese” is too generous — it was some synthetic flavor that, combined with the spice of the ramen, literally inflamed my taste buds and insides. I sampled some more in my plate to prove a point to the others even as tears began forming in my eyes. At this point, all thoughts of making my ancestors proud were lost.
#4: Buldak Spicy Noodles — Chicken
Nicole: 9.5/10 spice — After eating the cheesy spicy noodles, I was prepared for a spicy aftertaste, but these were even spicier. It felt like a bee had entered my mouth and started stinging me everywhere after the aftertaste had kicked in.
Will: 8/10 — After inspecting the packaging to see that there was actually no chicken within the chicken flavored noodles, I half-expected an intense artificial chicken flavor. I had little time to even consider the flavor when the spice hit my tongue. It was intense, and I instantly stopped eating.
Divya: 6/10 – Apparently there was no chicken in these noodles, but they might have forgotten the spice as well. I found these noodles to be the most flavorful and easiest on the tastebuds besides the first, which threw me off because it was supposed to be worse than the Buldak Cheese noodles.
Photo by Divya Vadlakonda
Nicole questioning her life decisions after ingesting the chicken-flavored scum.
#5: Buldak 2x Spicy Noodles
Nicole: 10/10 — I’d rate these noodles a 15/10 on the spice scale. After eating a single noodle that was only half-drenched in sauce, my tongue felt like it was on fire for a solid half hour afterward.
Will: 9/10 — These noodles were by far some of the spiciest noodles I had ever eaten. The noodles felt like flames in my throat, and water did nothing to quell the intense spice. Nicole and I had to rush to the vending machine to buy some chocolate milk to mask the spice, but that didn’t even help.
Divya: 10/10 — Will is lying, it was a 10. Not even chocolate milk, or regular milk for that matter, could mask the spice. I tried eating a Ghiradelli chocolate to relieve my burning tongue, but I lost that battle as well. My throat was on fire and tears threatened to fall; it was a while before my tongue stopped hurting. I would recommend these noodles if you consider heartburn and emotional turmoil enjoyable.
Photo by Divya Vadlakonda
Will whips out his altoids to save him from the spice’s wrath.
Photo by Isabelle Wang
Divya enters a psychedelic state of mind as the spice destroys her insides.
Photo by Divya Vadlakonda
Life editor Isabelle Wang tears up but stays strong after sampling the noodles.
Photo by Isabelle Wang
Opinion editor Sam Bai was a worthy sacrifice, but the spice got him too.
Conclusion
To our surprise, however, most of the noodles generally weren’t as bad as we expected them to be — they were actually addictingly tasty. If you’re interested in testing out multiple ramen flavors to find your favorite brand or flavor, this is a great way to be able to compare all flavors at once — and know which one or ones to avoid like a 7-alarm firm.
Photo by Divya Vadlakonda
The scene of the crime— empty noodle plates, but at what cost?
