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Nissin Cold Noodles: Novelty or Monstrosity?

Nissin Cold Noodles: Novelty or Monstrosity?

Stephanie Liu
August 28, 2026

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Speak Up Sesh

Before we begin today’s Speak Up Sesh, I’d like to do some quick housekeeping. This newsletter began as a weekly feature before we had to cut back to a monthly one. However, we’re now going back to a weekly model! So expect to see more Siliconera in your inbox every Friday morning! Usually, topics focus on Japanese pop culture such as anime and games (which you’re all here for when you visit Siliconera), as well as sales. Today’s topic is an outlier, as well as something I had wanted the chance to write about even a month ago.

Image via TV Tokyo

I had the opportunity to visit Japan from late July to early August, and my goodness, but the weather and humidity were killer in Tokyo. Hokkaido wasn’t too bad, and there was even a day or two when I had to wear my UV-cutting jacket for warmth instead of skin protection, so if anyone’s thinking of going to Japan in the summer, I highly recommend visiting Hokkaido for part of it.

It was also during my time in Hokkaido that I found something I’d been hoping to buy even before I went: the Nissin cold cup noodles. These are the first ever cold water-only cup noodles, which allows people to enjoy their favorite snack even in the grueling Asia heat. To “cook” them, you simply need to pour in cold water fresh from the refrigerator and wait five minutes. I personally like instant noodles that border on al dente, so I ate them at the three-minute mark, and that was fine, too.

Asahikawa Airport, where I found these cold noodles, stocked both the kimchi flavor and the chicken salt lemon flavor. So I bought both, as one does. I recently finished both and… Well… Hmm…

Well, they’re definitely foods to try if you’re curious!

Now, obviously, cold soup noodles aren’t unheard of. Off the top of my head, Korea’s delicious cold soup noodles are a delight to eat during the summer (and even in other seasons, too). But my brain really could not handle the cold Nissin noodles. The taste of the soup was fine for both, albeit a little salty (as one can expect from instant noodles). But it’s the concept of eating it out of a cup plus the texture of the noodles that all added to the feeling of wrongness for me.

Everything in my mouth was cold, but my brain kept telling me that it should be hot, that I had messed up the “cooking” process, even though I had followed the instructions on the packaging. The best way I can describe it is someone who’s only ever eaten sweet oatmeal their whole life suddenly being handed a bowl of savory oatmeal for breakfast. I know it’s bad for you to drink all the soup in instant noodles, but I usually do, and I couldn’t even do that.

Obviously, this isn’t to discourage anyone from giving these noodles a try. They’re genuinely a fun novelty, and they’re a quick and easy dinner or snack on hot days. Considering how difficult they were to track down even in Japan, I’d definitely recommend you to purchase them if you can find them on physical or digital shelves. Honestly, I might just be way too rigid in my thinking of what instant noodles should be, and they’re not that bizarre.

Speaking of cup noodles from Nissin, if you go to Japan and are interested in checking out the Cup Noodles Museum in Yokohama and making your own cup noodles, you should definitely reserve a spot to guarantee a spot. While the museum is fun otherwise, it definitely feels like you’re missing out on a large part of the experience without that original custom cup noodle.

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Nissin Cold Noodles: Novelty or Monstrosity?

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