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How the Cup Noodles Empire Was Built
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Apr 29, 2025
Weird History Food is gonna give you the History of Cup Noodles. Cup Noodle, from Nissin Foods, is known for being in about every college dorm and kitchen pantry across the United States. The inspiration for Cup Noodles came from Ando Momofuku's trip to the US in 1966. Let's find out how Ando made these noodles became so successful. We promise this video is pretty low in sodium.
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Today on Weird History Food, we're boiling up the history of cup noodles
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With the start and finish of the Second World War, Japan was left in a state of devastating poverty
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At the time, the Japanese government, with the help of their American occupiers, were
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continuing their wartime rationing program. And both inefficiency and corruption were leading to widespread hunger and black market pop-ups
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Momofuku Ando noticed that long lines of starving people would wait out in freezing temperatures
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just for a chance to taste some hot black market ramen. What if he could create a just-add-water alternative
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that would revolutionize the way Japanese people prepared one of their favorite meals
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One fateful night, seeing the way his wife fried up their tempura dinner by using piping hot oil
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he decided to try the technique out on his noodles. The high heat seemed to zap the moisture right out of them
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At long last, Momofuku had finally figured out a way to dehydrate his ramen
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He then developed his very first flavor profile, and in 1958, Momofuku was ready to send his chicken ramen to stores across Japan
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Far from helping to feed Japan's poor, freezing working people, Momofuku's instant ramen was considered a luxury item at first
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Still, his instant ramen was an instant success. It was simple and fast to make, and it could be stored for far longer than traditional noodles
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Within its first year on the market, his newfound company Nishin Food was selling 10 portions each and every day And by the mid Nishin looked to expand into other countries outside of Japan While touring the United States as a potential new market
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Momofuku noticed a recurring trend at every corporate office he visited. The staff at each of these offices would be given their sample of instant noodles in disposable cups
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When they were done eating, they would simply throw the cups into the garbage. So he headed back to Japan and had a team of the world's top noodle scientists
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generate almost 40 different prototypes for a new type of instant ramen
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one that could be made straight from a disposable cup. And by September of 1971
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cup noodles were ready to change the way we ramen forever. Over the many decades since Nishin's instant ramen and cup noodles hit the market
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they've released dozens of flavors and have inspired oodles of competitors. In the new millennium, instant ramen has continued to grow bigger and better than ever before
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Despite this popularity, many nutritionists have raised concerns over instant ramen's apparent lack of nutritional value
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They are super high in salt content. With one single package often providing over three quarters
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of the recommended sodium intake for a single day, instant ramen also often contains TVHQ
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the preservative that has been shown in lab settings to damage DNA. Today, over 100 billion packs of instant ramen are sold around the globe each year
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China is its top consumer, followed by Indonesia and Vietnam. Of the other top 10 instant ramen consumers
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the USA and Brazil are the only non-Asian countries among them. We're really into microwave noodles in the States
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