Nissin NIPPON Yokohama Tonkotsu Shoyu Ramen Review

Nissin has a line of deluxe instant ramen bowls under the Nippon label.  There must be half a dozen different types of bowls and they represent regional ramen specialties from around Japan. I had only seen these online before, but then I saw a couple of varieties at the Asian supermarket.  They cost $2 -$3 in Japan, but when they get imported, they have prices that are two or four times higher.  I got one anyhow to try.

The one I picked up was Yokohama Tonkotsu Shoyu ramen.  These have a rich flavour, a thick noodle, a pork soy sauce soup with Kikaseta chicken oild.  It features roast pork, green onions, and spinach which according to Yokohama Walker has these three classic dimensions.  Bowls packaging certainly looked appealing and I waited until I had a ramen craving to try it out.

The Nippon Yokohama Tonkotsu Shoyu Ramen Bowl

This bowl of ramen had an interesting color scheme of light low with the Nippon branding and bold red Kanji characters for the ramen name on a while label.  I'm not sure what target market these ramen are aimed at.  Is it foreign toursts looking for souvenirs, a new line of products, or locals who want something a little different, etc.  It doesn't really matter anyhow as Nissin rarely makes a product I don't like, so it'll be good for whoever eats it.

Close up.

Top view of the lid of the bowl.  It is quite attractively done, showing off the contents of the bowl as a delicious looking noodle soup that fills the bowl.  The Nippon logo is set against artistic red sun on a white noren cloth that would be on the doorway into a ramen restaurant.  The Yokohama Tonkotsu Shoyu ramen is in bold red characters running across the middle of the lid.  At the bottom right you can see some of the landmarks from Yokohama like the Landmark Tower, the ferris wheel, and more.  The soup shows off thick noodles, a piece of charsu pork, spinach greens, and some nori (dried seaweed sheets).

Side Label of Bowl.

Ingredients and cooking directions.

Nutritional information.  There's 15 grams of fat, which isn't too surprising considering what will make the broth tasty.

Manufacturing information.

The ingredients inside the instant ramen bowl.  It shows an air-dried ramen noodle block, a packet of dried veggies and the dried pork, a packet of liquid soup base, a packet with 3 sheets of nori,

Concentrated liquid soup.

Dried spinach, dried green onion, and a piece of dried pork.

The underside of the lid shows a special coupon offer for the Nissin Museum in Yokohama which is worth a visit if you like instant noodles. The code linked to the museums website for a limited time special 100 yen discount on a 500 yen ticket.

The finished soup was definitely tasty looking.

To make the soup, I opened up the ingredients sachets and added them on top of the noodle block.  Then I added 450 ml of boiling water up to the fill lin on the inside of the bowl and closed the lid again.  This ramen noodles in the bowl are air dried, so they are healthier, but the soup is rich and has oil and fat in it to give it flavour and texture.  In the end, it is similar to having an instant ramen with fried noodles.  The air dried noodles take longer to rehydrate, so I lit them sit for 5 minutes which is what the directions say.  Once that was done I stirred it up and added the nori to the side. 

The finished bowl of instant ramen.

This ramen bowl had a very nice soy / pork aroma and looked delicious with a nice brownish broth.  The noodles were thicker than normal and had a good chew.  I've had this type of dehydrated pork before and it rehydrated really nicely with a nice meaty texture to it.  The soup tasted pretty good for a shoyu / tonkotsu broth with good flavour that made me drink most of it up.  If you see this and want to be able to satisfy a ramen craving at home I would buy this.

Closeup of the noodle and the slice of pork.

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