Korean Ramen Leader Surprised by Bland Taste Buds

A surprising shift in taste among Korea’s millions of ramen lovers has caught by surprise the nation’s top ramen maker and given a big boost to two rivals, according to JoongAng Ilbo.

Nongshim has held the top spot in the ramen market since 1986 when it achieved an instant hit by capitalizing on Korean fondness for red pepper broth with its Shin Ramyun. Until then the market had been dominated by bland Japanese-style ramen with white broth. Nongshim’s quarter-century reign at the top seemed so secure thanks to Korean fondness for spicy ramen that it scoffed at the plans of rivals Samyang and Palso to release new “white” varieties of ramen.

But when Samyang’s Nagasaki Champong and Paldo’s Kkokkomyeon noodles — both white ramen based on subtle Japanese flavors — debuted this summer, consumers couldn’t get enough. The new flavors proved to be such huge hits that its makers have been struggling to keep up with demand.

Samyang’s daily production of 700,000 packets of Nagasaki Champong is leaving consumers hungry for more. From its debut at the end of July through the end of November it had sold 53 million packets of the product and hopes to produce enough by January to begin exports to Japan.

“We’ve got our plants running around the clock seven days a week to meet demand,” said Samyang spokesman Choi Nam-seok. “We sold 17 million packets in November alone. At this pace, we expect to shift more than 20 million packets in December.”

Paldo sold over 60 million packets of Kkokkomyeon through the end of November and will begin exporting it to the US, Australia and Japan in January, according to spokesperson Im Min-uk.

Samyang is the number two ramen maker while Paldo holds the fourth spot.

Ottogi, the number three brand, is also hoping to tap the trend with a Chinese chicken-flavored ramen called Kissmyun launched in November. Top player Nongshim hopes to make up for its judgment error with a cup-sized beef-flavored soup noodle called Gomtang released on December 14. The product harkens to a traditional Korean beef soup but is clearly hoping to appeal to buyers of white ramens. It is also said to be considering a white ramen product based on Japanese shabu shabu.

The popularity of the new white ramen is sending seismic waves through fast-food restaurants. Many have begun adding Kkokkomyeon and Nagasaki Champong to their menu boards.

In July Shin Ramyun had 14.8% of ramen sales at the Homeplus discount retail chain, followed by Nongshim’s Olive Chapagetti at 7.9% and Neoguri Spicy at 6.8%. By November Shin Ramyun’s share of Homeplus had slipped to 14.4%. More importantly, it was being pursued by Kkokkomyeon and Nagasaki Champong, both with over 10% each.

At E-Mart white ramen beat red soup ramen for the first time in November, with Nagasaki Champong claiming 13.5% of sales, 0.2% ahead of Shin Ramyun. E-Mart only based their calculations on sales of bundled packets of five ramen and did not include individual packet sales, argued a Nongshim executive. But an E-Mart executive pointed out that five-packet bundles are the most popular instant noodle packaging and shows that white ramen is winning the taste war.