Taste-Testing 12 Kinds of Sapporo Ichiban Instant Noodles: Ryuji and Takeshi Takeshima Search for "the Best Bowl"

The first topic is their different preferences in how to cook the noodles. Takeshima doesn't follow the package instructions and instead likes to boil the noodles longer, until they're "a little bit soggy." Takeshima's preference is to make them so soft you'd think the broth was about to disappear. Ryuji has a "Buzz Recipe rule": he makes them with 50cc less water than the amount on the package. The Shio Ramen was made with 450cc.

The first item is "Shio Ramen." The powdered soup base is dissolved, and the included sesame seeds are sprinkled on at the end. Ryuji said of the soup powder that he'd "like them to sell just this on its own," praising it for a distinctive flavor not found in other shio ramen. The broth seems to be based on chicken bones, but even when he asked people at Sapporo Ichiban, they wouldn't tell him the details. Ryuji joked that he doesn't think he could copy it, and that maybe only about three people in the world know the recipe.

Takeshima said that with some arrangement, it could be transformed into something as high as SSS tier. The view was that it's a base that can be adapted to anything.

The second item, "Miso Ramen," was made with 400cc of water. According to Ryuji, Sapporo Ichiban's noodles have different ingredients kneaded into them for each flavor, and the Miso Ramen noodles contain miso. Takeshima didn't know that the noodles themselves differ between shio, miso, and shoyu. Ryuji said, "We need to take another look at Sapporo Ichiban."

Talking about their childhoods, Ryuji said he ate almost nothing but the miso. Takeshima, who is from Kyushu, grew up surrounded by tonkotsu-style instant noodles, with brands like Umakacchan being familiar.

The included shichimi spice mix gives it a bit of heat. Both agreed that it's less "miso ramen" and more "the taste of Sapporo Ichiban." Takeshima gave it a positive rating but added that, having come without eating anything that day, the miso tasted especially good, to which Ryuji replied, "That's just your condition." Eating the miso after the shio, Ryuji found it delicious all over again and reaffirmed his preference: "The shio's good too, but I'm a miso guy." At this point, he said it would be impressive if any of the later products beat this one.

The third item, "Shoyu Aji," is apparently Ryuji's grandmother's top pick. The noodles have soy sauce kneaded into them and are slightly brown. The included pepper is sprinkled over a soup with a chicken-bone base. For Ryuji, it's a nostalgic taste.

Takeshima's rating was reserved. The soup is good, but it's a flavor you could probably find elsewhere. Takeshima also said they'd like the noodles to be thinner. Ryuji, too, felt that compared with the miso, the noodles and soup didn't come together as well. Ryuji sensed a distinctive firm, springy texture in these noodles, which Takeshima found a bit too strong; Takeshima prefers noodles that blend into the soup a little more. Ryuji argued, however, that shoyu is the one that improves the most with arrangement. Just topping it with stir-fried vegetables makes it delicious, and he says shoyu is the one he's eaten the most. In the end, the two also said the first two items had simply been too strong.

The fourth item is "Shio Tonkotsu Ramen." According to Ryuji, some people say this is their favorite product, and its base is the Shio Ramen. The noodles have egg kneaded into them and are a different color. The soup is cloudy white, without any pork-bone funk, and slightly creamy. The finishing sesame seeds are the same as in the Shio Ramen.

Takeshima, who is from Kyushu and has eaten tonkotsu "to death," gave it a positive rating while flatly declaring, "This isn't tonkotsu." What it's trying to do comes across, but it's closer to a paitan-style shio ramen. Ryuji likes this product and suggested that adding toppings like red pickled ginger might change the rating. When Takeshima said it might be good in a hot pot, Ryuji replied that there's already a hot pot recipe that uses it.

Ryuji explained that the fifth item, "Miso Ramen Umakara," uses the same noodles as the regular Miso Ramen but with a spicy soup. Its distinguishing feature is that it comes with an "umakara sauce" in addition to the soup powder. According to Ryuji, Sapporo Ichiban doesn't usually include sauce packets, so this would likely have a more modern flavor.

When they tasted it, it was spicier than expected. Takeshima rated it above the Shio Tonkotsu. The spiciness is somewhat close to Taiwan ramen, and the opinion came up that adding garlic, egg, and ground meat would transform it dramatically. The umami is strong, so the remaining issues are how the spiciness is handled and the amount of oil, with someone saying they wanted more oil. Ryuji felt it was plenty tasty as is. He also noted that it's slightly sweeter than the regular miso, which might be where opinions divide.

The sixth item, "Goma Aji Ramen," was a product that no one present had ever eaten. Ryuji first started to say it was a "regional exclusive," then corrected himself, explaining in effect that it isn't regionally limited but its availability is skewed toward certain areas. The noodles appear to be the same as the shoyu ramen. The package contains soup powder, sesame seeds including black sesame, and seasoning oil, positioning it as a sesame-flavored shoyu ramen with added oil. Ryuji said that including seasoning oil or sauce is rare for Sapporo Ichiban, calling it "an evolved Sapporo Ichiban."

It was rated highly. Takeshima said it was far better than the earlier shoyu. The noodles look the same, yet they seemed to blend into the soup better than before, which Takeshima suspected was the effect of the oil. The soy sauce aroma is also strong, with a crisp finish. Ryuji summed it up by saying the shoyu flavor is nostalgic, while the sesame flavor feels like modern ramen. There was even a joke that it might have surpassed Demae Itcho, and everyone shared their surprise that two shoyu-based products could taste so different.

From here, they move on to the "Gotouchi Netsuai-men" regional series. The first is Kitakata's "Bannai Shokudo Kitakata Main Store Supervised Chuka Soba." According to the description on the package, a proprietary technique gives each noodle both thick and thin sections, for a hand-cut style finish. The soup powder is fairly light, and it comes with oil. It was also mentioned that ramen from cold regions uses oil to keep it piping hot.

Both felt it had none of the Sapporo Ichiban character at all. Takeshima rated it as putting more effort into recreating the umami than the oiliness, saying the effort to reproduce the original came through. Ryuji also said it was very good, particularly liking the soup's richness despite its clean taste. It was also mentioned that a Bannai Shokudo cup noodle released earlier had been underwhelming, and they compared the two, saying the noodles were completely different.

Next is Kawasaki's "Ganso New Tantanmen Honpo Supervised Tantanmen." It has yellowish egg noodles and is described as a salt-based tantanmen characterized by garlic, egg, and chili pepper. Takeshima has eaten at one of the Tokyo locations.

From the moment the soup was added, the aroma of garlic and chili rose up, and someone exclaimed that it smelled exactly like the real thing. When they tasted it, everyone was surprised, and the reactions kept coming: "It's the real deal." Someone even joked whether someone was making garlic sauté behind the scenes. In their ratings, they agreed that whether or not you like New Tantanmen, the level of recreation is amazing. Someone also said it's so one-of-a-kind that there's probably no other instant noodle like it. Ryuji said that if it were a ranking of what he'd want people to try, it might be number one so far, and he also praised the spiciness of the soup.

The third item in the regional series is Hakata's "Hakata Junjo Ramen ShinShin Supervised Takidashi Tonkotsu Ramen." According to Takeshima, it's a famous shop, and rather than the old-school, intensely pungent tonkotsu, it serves an easy-to-eat modern tonkotsu that people in Tokyo would probably like too.

Takeshima rated the soup as quite close, saying it brought back the taste of ShinShin. On the noodles, however, Takeshima felt that another stick-style ramen was better. Someone also said it was too gentle for a tonkotsu. There was also the comment that since the cup noodle version had been underwhelming, they'd hoped the packaged version would be good.

Next, from a different series, comes "Gokukara Miso Uma Tanmen," which has fried noodles containing miso and egg, slightly thicker than the others. The soup was darker than the earlier Umakara and spicier as well. By this point, after so much consecutive tasting, someone said it was "starting to get a little rough."

Takeshima said they liked it better than the earlier Umakara, because the noodles are a bit thicker, the soup is slightly thick and clings well, and Takeshima likes spicy food. Ryuji said the noodles might be the best so far, guessing that it was designed in a tanmen style. The conclusion was that the Umakara might be the one that transforms more with arrangement, but this one is better on its own. They rated it very highly as a spicy ramen.

As something other than ramen, they also tried the "Sauce Yakisoba." It's boiled for two minutes in 220cc of hot water, and once the water is gone, the included sauce is added and stir-fried while mixing. Ryuji said it's easy because the sauce already contains oil, so you don't need to add any separately. The noodles are on the thin side, and it was finished with aonori seaweed.

The verdict was roughly, "That's about what you'd expect." Both the noodles and the sauce were light and gentle in flavor, and the honest impression was that the other products tasted better. There was also speculation that this might be why it isn't sold nationwide.

The last item is "Wafu Shoyu Ramen / Wafu Shio Ramen Finished with Kuze Fuku & Co. Supervised 'Mainichi Dashi.'" It reportedly uses a type of noodle that's unusual for Sapporo Ichiban. It's based on Kuze Fuku & Co.'s "Mainichi Dashi," and the soup gives off a strong dashi aroma, prompting someone to say, "This isn't Sapporo Ichiban anymore."

This product clearly split opinions, with Ryuji saying, "We've never been this divided before." Takeshima clearly liked it. Ryuji went so far as to say it was "not good at all," because the noodles were rubbery and the dashi was more like udon than ramen. Takeshima admitted to being slightly bothered by the noodles too, but countered that it's still ramen, if you think of it that way. Ryuji suggested that it might only have seemed good because a different flavor came along after they had grown tired of eating the Sapporo Ichiban taste over and over, likening it to pickles at a cake buffet. Takeshima acknowledged there was something to that. Ryuji let slip that he felt like he'd had enough Sapporo Ichiban for a while.

Finally, each person named their top picks. One participant put Bannai in third, New Tantanmen in second, and miso in first, saying, "In the end, nothing beats the miso." Another said that after finishing everything, New Tantanmen left the strongest impression, and named Bannai in third for how good it was as a hand-cut style instant noodle. Some put the Kuze Fuku series near the top, while others backed the classic shio. The person who picked the sesame flavor said it stuck with them because it overturned their idea of what Sapporo Ichiban shoyu could be, while saying New Tantanmen had impact and tasted good but was "too different."

As a result, not a single product overlapped among their choices. Ryuji said he'd assumed that in the end nothing would beat the shio or miso, but that he might have underestimated Sapporo Ichiban a little, and he felt its potential was amazing. He summed up by saying his understanding of the brand had grown considerably. Takeshima said they thought it was a very versatile manufacturer, that they hadn't known the noodles were all different, and that the regional recreations were impressive too.