Cup Noodles Campfire S'mores Review: Does The World Really Need Hot Chocolate Noodles?

Cup Noodles has truly lived up to its name, providing instant nourishing meals in its own containers since 1971. Savory flavors like chicken, beef, and shrimp have long been favorites, while newer editions like curry and tom yom soup are now also spicing up the lineup. In 2023, Cup Noodles started noodling with ideas that landed way outside the cup, including dropping a Breakfast version that brought together the talents of maple syrup, pancakes, eggs, and a sausage-flavored sauce. A year later, Cup Noodles is drumming up sweet dreams again, but this time focusing on dessert with its Campfire S'mores flavor.

A chocolaty cup of ramen? It sounds too silly to be serious, but now that it's an actuality, it's too much of a dare to not take on. After having a full dinner, I was ready to try it for dessert. So, is this Cup Noodles Campfire S'mores a cozy summertime treat or a trick that should be extinguished? The following chew and review is based on taste, originality, and the feasibility of a dessert ramen.

As I pulled back the lid, the contents of this Cup Noodle immediately told me that this was no ordinary flavor. It looked like a hot chocolate frozen in time, with pellets of marshmallow lying about over a pile of powdery, dry chocolate. It has the appearance of one of those fake food displays that are placed in the front of a restaurant to entice customers to buy it. It had an appealing cocoa smell to it, which added to its allure.

I followed the instructions of adding water to the fill line, which floated the marshmallow pellets to the top. Three minutes of microwave magic and it was ready, although some of the liquid boiled over, making a mess of my cup. The directions instructed me to wait two minutes, but my curiosity couldn't last that long.

The contents of the cup no longer resembled the hot chocolate I once admired, and instead just looked like a brown-watery cup of ramen. The noodles retained their umami-ness and were nicely chewy, but seemed out of place in a sea of a chocolate liquid. It's a weird balance that's hard to get past. The chalky chocolate told my taste buds to try to enjoy its sweetness, but the noodles kept reminding my brain that this should be a more salty soiree. Either way, this didn't feel like any s'mores session at a campfire I've ever been a part of.

Cup Noodles Campfire S'mores contain enriched flour, vegetable oil, sugar, tapioca starch, salt, annatto extract for color, beta carotene color, blue 1, brown sugar, citric acid, cocoa processed with alkali, corn starch, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, disodium guanylate, disodium inosinate, egg white, enzyme modified milkfat, garlic powder, gelatin, guar gum, honey, hydrolyzed corn, natural and artificial flavor, onion powder, silicon dioxide, sodium bicarbonate, sodium caseinate, sodium hexametaphosphate, sodium phosphate, sodium tripolyphosphate, soy lecithin, spice and color, sucralose, TBHQ (preservative), vegetable oil shortening, wheat flour, whey, whole wheat flour. It also contains the common allergens wheat, soybean, egg, and milk. The gelatin is pork based, and the product contains bioengineered food ingredients. It is manufactured in a facility that also processes peanut, tree nuts, sesame, crustacean shellfish, and other fish products.

The serving size for Cup Noodles Campfire S'mores is one package, which is 87 grams. It's good for 400 calories, 14 grams of total fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 800 milligrams of sodium, 61 grams of total carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 9 grams of total sugars, 7 grams of protein, 2.8 milligrams of iron, and 110 milligrams of potassium.

Just in time to kick off Independence Day celebrations, Cup Noodles Campfire S'mores is exclusively available to purchase at Walmart. It is a limited edition flavor available for sale while supplies last. The suggested retail price is $1.18, and a six-pack is available for $7.08. 

For those not near a Walmart, direct shipping is also an option. I purchased mine in the store and found it in a special temporary item area not far from where other Cup Noodles products are normally shelved. Based on the food expectation date, which may one day become a thing of the past, this Cup of Noodles is good for at least 10 months. However, I suspect these dried noodles could be good for a lot longer than that.

Cup Noodles Campfire S'mores is no simple dessert, as it's girth provides a full meal. With something so filling, and almost a challenge to eat with its odd flavor juxtaposition, is it worth the time and effort? Well, at $1.18, I think it's worth the expense, even for just a sip of its experimental taste.

Before I shut the book on Cup Noodles Campfire S'mores for good, my wife suggested I place it in the fridge to cool it down and then try it later on. That turned out to be a great call, as it was more palatable as a cold concoction than a hot one. The sweetness dissipated a tad, making it less awkward. On second thought, maybe I should have just peeled back the cup's lid and never put any water in it. It would have remained a hot chocolate frozen in time that I could have displayed in my kitchen as modern art.