14 Discontinued Instant Ramen Flavors We Desperately Need Back

How many bowls of instant ramen do you think are eaten each year around the world? 100 million? A billion, maybe? It's a little higher than that. In 2023, over 120 billion servings of instant noodles were prepared and slurped down worldwide, according to the World Instant Noodles Association. With the never-ending appeal of these noodles on full display, it's no wonder that instant ramen manufacturers are constantly offering new flavors to appeal to the masses. It's also no surprise that not all of these flavors satisfy customers enough to stick around for very long.

As such, instant ramen history is littered with discontinued flavors that can no longer be found anywhere. In some cases, instant ramen brands discontinue their flavors in certain markets, making them all but impossible to find unless you're willing to travel halfway around the world. In others, these food companies get rid of their ramen flavors for good. However, on the internet, nothing is truly ever forgotten, and as you might expect there are plenty of people out there who are constantly pining for their favorite instant ramen flavors to be returned to the market — and others that we need to see come back for their sheer novelty factor.

Even people who claim to be psychic probably couldn't predict that Pringles would end up putting out instant ramen flavors that taste like its potato chips, but here we are. In the late 2010s, Pringles teamed up with Vietnamese food producer Acecook to debut a range of Pringles-flavored ramen, and its Sour Cream and Onion Flavor was a real eye-catcher. Sporting Mr. Julius Pringles himself on each pack, this instant ramen came in a square box and had a picture of a pringle dipping into a sour cream dip on the front, next to a bowl of noodles.

We've gotta be honest, the branding doesn't exactly make us salivate — and the thought of Pringles-flavored noodles is not the most exciting. So it's pretty surprising that these noodles were apparently pretty good. The Sour Cream and Onion noodles were intended to be served in a yakisoba style, and they had a light, not-too-salty flavor that defied customer expectations. However, it's fair to say that these instant ramen noodles were always going to be a fairly niche product, and so it was no huge shock that they were discontinued, leaving fans of them devastated.

Maruchan Tomato Flavor Ramen is pretty legendary. This flavor has spawned Facebook groups in its memory, Reddit threads dedicated to its remembrance, and a slew of copycat recipes and knowledge swaps to try and get the closest-tasting alternative. While we never had the pleasure of trying this ramen, which was discontinued in 2003 and has left a hole in the market ever since, our best guess is that it tasted somewhat like condensed tomato soup poured over instant noodles thanks to its tomato flavor powder packet. That might sound a little wild, but when you consider that tomato soup is a flavor bomb that's full of savory notes and the noodles themselves are pillowy and bouncy, there's a combo of tastes and textures at play that we think would seriously work.

It's difficult to find any solid knowledge on exactly why Maruchan Tomato Flavor Ramen was discontinued. It could be down to its ingredients getting more expensive or hard to source, or because this ramen was just a little too niche for mass consumption. Whatever the reason, the crowds are begging for it to come back, Maruchan!

Samyang Buldak Mala is one of those instant ramen products that noodle aficionados love. The Mala flavor was once a common fixture in stores that stocked lots of exported instant ramen varieties. It had a super spicy, aromatic flavor and scent which came from its Mala seasoning packet, which had the numbing tastes of Szechuan pepper and a host of other piquant ingredients.

However, Samyang Buldak Mala was discontinued with no warning, leaving a host of its fans devastated. Perhaps in response to their outcry, Samyang came out with a new Mala flavor. However, it had a different formulation and noodle shape and just didn't quite hit the same taste notes that the original product nailed.

Interestingly, it may be the case that you can get the original version of Samyang Buldak Mala in some parts of the world: People have reported seeing it show up in Thailand and Indonesia, as it appears that Samyang may still have stock of the noodles that it's working through (or be making them again). When it comes to the U.S., though, it's basically impossible to find these in stores. Unless you're willing to travel to Southeast Asia, you may not be able to try this fabled flavor — and even then you might end up with the new flavor instead.

Shrimp instant ramen is fairly popular, and a lot of the major ramen producers out there have a shrimp flavored product — including Maruchan, one of the biggest instant ramen companies around. However, it seems that at some point, Maruchan decided that it had one shrimp flavored product too many. Its Maruchan Yakisoba with Shrimp, which was once a fairly mainstream item that you could find at Walmart back in the early 2010s, was therefore discontinued before it really had a chance to build a mainstream following.

This ramen was served as yakisoba is, with a dry sauce and thin ramen noodles. Its seasoning packet came with little dried shrimp pieces inside, so it was kind of a surprise that these instant noodles didn't taste like shrimp at all. Instead, they had a punchy garlic flavor, which may have been nice but wasn't the taste note that customers were promised. It was perhaps this slight deception that led to its downfall, and pretty soon it had been removed from the market, never to be seen again (well, apart from in articles like this, that is). We can't help but want to give it another go though.

We like food innovation as much as the next person, but even we find the idea of Pumpkin Spice Cup Noodles, one of the brand's limited edition flavors, hard to stomach. This noodle flavor, made by instant ramen kingpin Cup Noodles, was clearly designed to jump on the pumpkin spice trend that's affected everything from lattes to SPAM. Popping up during 2021, when most of us were still trying to deal with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, this gimmicky product felt like yet another issue for mankind to tussle with. Inside each cup of noodles was a nest of ramen and a spice blend that dissolved into a murky orange soup that looked deeply unappealing. So far, not great.

So how did it taste? Surprisingly, this product split opinions, with some people absolutely loving it. These sweet noodles grabbed some folks with their spicy, buttery notes and surprisingly chewy strands. Others, however, were not as delighted with them, finding them overly sugary and with a weird licorice taste that couldn't be shaken easily. However, it's likely no surprise to anyone that these noodles weren't going to stick around forever. While some pumpkin spice products hit the mark and return to stores, the Cup Noodles ramen has been missing from shelves in the last few years, much to the dismay of the PSL who still crave it.

Indomie noodles are everywhere, and the brand has a dizzying amount of flavors on offer. Predictably, not all of them stick around forever. Indomie's Curly Noodles with Grilled Chicken Flavor was one such casualty in the instant ramen wars. This ramen stood apart from regular Indomie due to the noodles' thin, flat texture, which prevented it from becoming too pulpy and dense. Its sweet-spicy flavor profile was infused with a gentle chicken flavor, and the small amount of broth produced with the regular cooking instructions kept everything nice and moist.

It's clear that Indomie stumbled on a winner with this flavor, but for some reason it didn't think so. While these chicken noodles were around for a good amount of time, eventually they were discontinued. They did seem to be brought back for Indomie's 50th anniversary, likely as a retrospective from the company that offered customers a trip down memory lane with its flavors, but they didn't stick around for long. Although you may be able to find them in certain parts of the world like Australia, in the U.S. they were sadly discontinued with no return.

Oh, man. Pringles jalapeño and onion flavor ramen: Just the name itself evokes a feeling of horror as to what these noodles taste like. It's fair to say that if you were picking an instant ramen flavor, the vegetal, intense profile of spicy jalapeños and sharp onion likely wouldn't be where you started, right? So imagine our shock when we discovered that Pringles jalapeño and onion flavor ramen, made by Acecook, was a flavor that hit the spot. These noodles were curiously like jalapeño poppers, with a bold spiciness that pleased those heat hunters out there. The soupiness of this ramen was also a winner, and helped somewhat to diffuse the intense heat in them.

However, there's no denying that the association that these noodles had with Pringles likely hindered them a little. Maybe customers just couldn't get around the idea that their noodles would have a pulpy, wet chip texture, even if that wasn't the case (it was just regular ramen noodles in each cup, folks). Regardless, Pringles jalapeño and onion flavor ramen was soon discontinued, and you probably won't find it anywhere any time soon.

Maruchan wasn't content with discontinuing just one of its tomato flavored instant noodles when it got rid of its Tomato Flavor Ramen. Pretty soon, it was discontinuing its other tomato flavors too. Marchuan's Tomato Basil Yakisoba was a bold take on fusion food. It essentially attempted to combine Japanese noodles with Italian flavors to make a kind of a pasta dish that also had a weirdly deep beef flavor. Mixed into the tomato and basil notes was an umami dimension that gave these noodles a meaty flavor, even though there was no meat to be seen anywhere in the recipe.

However, it seems like Maruchan lost faith in its combo of tomato, basil, beef notes, and yakisoba noodles at some point. While they hit the shelves around 2011, it wasn't long before they were yanked off them again. Maruchan Tomato Basil Yakisoba has maintained a small but passionate fanbase ever since, but we wouldn't expect these back any time soon.

Okay, so we know that udon and ramen are totally different things — but udon noodles have infiltrated the instant ramen market significantly. Instant noodles are now frequently marketed as being made with udon instead of regular ramen. However, it must be said that the dehydrated kind you get in cups is a far cry from thick, chewy homemade udon noodles.

This was definitely the case with Sapporo Ichiban CupStar Kitsune Udon, an instant noodle product that used udon noodles that looked ... well ... Just like ramen. There was a slight thickness, but they really weren't that chunky at all. Despite this, these instant noodles did have a little more going for them than other kinds. Each cup had a generous amount of fried tofu chunks inside, as well as a load of dried veggies, and it had a slightly fishy bonito broth that kept it light and bright.

Unfortunately, while some folks fell in love with Sapporo Ichiban instant udon noodles, American production on them ceased at the start of the 2010s. You may be able to find them if you're willing to go all the way to Japan, but we wouldn't frame your entire trip around it, folks. Last time we checked, too, they were unavailable on Amazon's Japanese website. 

Long before a certain film made ratatouille even more iconic, the dish was setting tastebuds alight with its bright combination of fresh, baked vegetables. Clearly, Cup Noodle decided that its flavor was unique enough to put into instant ramen form, and lo, the Cup Noodle Light Ratatouille Flavor was born. Cup Noodle lent into the dish's lighter nature by creating a lower-calorie version of its regular ramen flavors. Each cup contained 198 calories, which might cause alarm bells to ring for folks who associate lo-cal with low-flavor. Luckily, the Cup Noodle Light Ratatouille Flavor was packed with taste, with a top note of tomato and a bunch of dried vegetables thrown into the broth.

Given its accessible flavor, lower-calorie nature, and association with a famous food, it's kind of a surprise that Cup Noodle discontinued this instant ramen option. However, soon after it debuted it disappeared again, and nowadays you can't find it anywhere. Maybe it was just a little too niche (or too obviously wholesome) to please the masses, who are more used to chicken-flavored or spicy instant ramen.

Beef flavored instant ramen is far from uncommon. Beef taco flavor, on the other hand, is much more niche. However, in 2013, Maruchan decided that niche clearly needed to be filled, and the company upgraded instant ramen for good with its Yakisoba Beef Taco Flavor. These noodles offered a twist on the classic umami notes filling regular beef noodles, and added a spicy undertone that made them a little more fierce without being overwhelming. Some reviewers compared them to the taste of chili cheese fries (in ramen form? Yes please!), and also noted that the noodles had a pleasing texture to them.

This is one of those instant ramen flavors that we could see becoming a cult hit — if Maruchan allowed it to stick around. It decided to retire its Beef Taco flavor, taking it off the market, never to return. The manufacturer does still make some unique beef flavors that are slightly more in line with the tastes that you'd expect from instant ramen, with its Teriyaki Beef option a mainstay of the noodle market. If you want beef taco noodles, though, you're gonna have to try and whip them up yourself.

Instant ramen products that are inspired by non-traditional flavors are pretty common, but it's also fair to say that they often don't last long. If you need any proof of this, look no further than Cup Noodles' Spicy Chile Chicken flavor. This product seemed to take cues from Mexican cuisine, with the ground habanero peppers in its seasoning blend trying to add a little spice. We say "try" because in reality these noodles really weren't that fiery at all, but this did make them more accessible to a wider market. The little chunks of soy protein and dehydrated vegetables throughout also gave the product some much-needed textural variety.

Cup Noodles' Spicy Chile Chicken flavor was first introduced at the start of the 2010s, and as with many instant ramen products it's unclear exactly when (or why) it was discontinued. However, discontinued it was, and now the Spicy Chile Chicken ramen is nowhere to be found. You'll have to make do with Cup Noodles' other spicy chicken flavors to scratch your itch, until the company decides that the market needs habanero-flavored noodles once more.

Okay, now we've really seen everything. Cup Noodles and gaming are synonymous with each other, with the instant ramen product perceived as the favorite meal of folks who can't pull themselves away from raiding and looting dungeons to cook something. Plus, what do those people slurp down to stay focused? Energy drinks. This pair of clichés led Cup Noodle to make its Gaming Cup Noodles, two flavors of its popular instant ramen which contained ... wait for it ... caffeine, arginine, and niacin — the same ingredients you'd find in energy drinks. That's right, people: Eat these noodles and you'll not only be energized by the carbohydrates, but by the stimulants inside them.

We're sad to report that we didn't try these noodles when they were out. The biggest surprise, though, was that apparently they were pretty tasty. Gaming Cup Noodles came in Garlic & Black Pepper Yakisoba and Ginger Keema Curry flavors (with the latter actually being based around rice instead of noodles). The Garlic & Black Pepper flavor had a richness to it that was balanced by the sharp, pungent garlic, and it was also studded with pork mince. Gaming Cup Noodles didn't take off, and Nissin soon discontinued them. Honestly, though, we'd love to try just a bite, to see what they taste like — and how we felt afterward.

Cheesy noodles are nothing new, but when it comes to instant ramen, cheese is usually used as a topping or an accompaniment. That's not what Maruchan had in mind when it created its Four Cheese Flavor yakisoba. This creamy instant ramen was a cheese explosion and leaned into its central flavor profile way more than Maruchan's Cheddar Cheese noodles. Its white sauce (well, its white seasoning packet that turned into a sort-of sauce) managed to combine notes of white cheddar, parmesan, and a few other hints of cheese types that gave it a fair amount of complexity. This was all complemented by the flat noodles, which gave this ramen slightly more of a pasta feel.

When you paired these flavors with its reasonable price point, it's clear that this product was a winner. Sadly, Maruchan didn't seem to think so. It soon discontinued the Four Cheese flavor, leaving its customers having to make do with its cheddar-flavored product.