The History of Ramyeon

01Why Did Instant Noodles Become a Different Food in Every Country?

Let’s start by clearing up the confusing names. Ramen and ramyun branched off from the very same word, but today they are two distinct dishes.

While ramen is a Japanese food, Japan was not the first to create it. Its roots trace back to Chinese noodle dishes in the lamian (拉麵) family. It arrived through the Chinatowns of Yokohama, Nagasaki, and Hakodate opened during the Meiji era, and for a long time, people in Japan called it 'shina soba.' The opening of Rairaiken in Asakusa, Tokyo, in 1910 is widely cited as an early ramen shop run by a Japanese proprietor. That said, some point out that Chinese restaurants in treaty ports were already serving similar noodle dishes before then, so historical sources differ on what should be considered the true first.

What Japan invented was not ramen, but 'instant ramen'. Taking noodles previously simmered in shop kitchens, packing them into bags, and making them revivable anywhere in just a few minutes—that happened in 1958. Korea’s ramyun emerged when that instant ramen crossed the sea and transformed once more. That is why this story is closer to the history of a manufactured product than the history of cooking. It involves technology, factories, government policies, and accidents.

Its nature as an industrial product shaped the character of this food. Instant ramen packages noodles and soup seasoning separately. While the core principle of making noodles remains identical wherever they are produced, the seasoning packet can be swapped out entirely to suit local palates. That is why the very same technology became a different food in every country it entered. In Japan, it began with chicken broth; in Korea, it solidified into a spicy beef broth, and within Korea, a brothless branch emerged on its own. A single invention essentially became as many foods as there are countries.

Today, this manufactured product has grown into something massive. According to statistical tables from the World Instant Noodles Association, instant noodle consumption worldwide reached 124,209,000,000 units in 2025. Broken down by country as of 2024, China and Hong Kong ranked an overwhelming first with 43.8 billion units, followed by Indonesia with 14.7 billion units, and India with 8.8 billion units. Vietnam accounted for 8.1 billion units, Japan 5.9 billion units, and Korea 4.1 billion units.

Looking purely at total volume, Korea is not a large market, simply because its population is small. Yet products made in this modest market now line store shelves across the globe. To understand how that happened, you have to follow the trail all the way back to the days when Korea was still borrowing the craft.

Worth remembering This is not the history of a culinary dish, but the history of an industrial product—which is why the story begins not in a kitchen, but in the shed of a bankrupt man.

02What a Bankrupt 48-Year-Old Man Did in a Shed

In 1957, Momofuku Ando lost his entire fortune when the credit union where he served as chairman went bankrupt. He was born on March 5, 1910, in Taiwan under Japanese rule, and his birth name was Wu Baifu (吳百福). Raised by his grandparents who ran a textiles business, he started various ventures, only to lose everything that year.

Right after the bankruptcy, he witnessed a scene while passing through a black market near Umeda Station in Osaka. People were lined up in a long queue in front of a ramen stall. It was a line waiting in the cold just to have a single bowl of hot broth. That was when he thought of 'ramen you can easily eat at home.'

The problem was the noodles. Boiled noodles spoil quickly. Drying them makes them last, but eating them again requires boiling them for another long stretch. Noodles that revive quickly yet keep for a long time—these two conditions were pointing in opposite directions. Ando spent 1 year dedicated to the task in a shed in his backyard.

The answer was in the kitchen. Watching his wife fry tempura, he saw how hot oil instantly drew moisture from the batter and tried applying the concept to noodles. When cooked noodles are briefly fried in oil, the water escapes, leaving countless pores where the moisture used to be. Later, when hot water is poured in, it seeps into those pores and restores the noodles to their original tender state. This method was named the instant oil-heat drying method.

The core of this invention was not taste, but time. Until then, dried noodles required paying the full price of boiling time before they could be eaten again. Most of the cooking was still left to the person eating. The instant oil-heat drying method shifted that time to the factory. Cooking and drying were finished in advance and packed in a bag, leaving the eater with nothing to do but pour hot water.

On August 25, 1958, Nissin Food Products released 'Chicken Ramen' at 35 yen for 1 serving. All it took was pouring hot water, and it was ready in 2 minutes. People called it 'magic ramen.' The price was not cheap. It is widely cited that it cost several times more than a bowl of udon at the time.

This principle remains unchanged today. By modern manufacturing standards, noodles are fried in oil at around 150°C to bring their moisture content down to below 10%. Nongshim states that it maintains this level below 7%. Microorganisms cannot multiply without water. Instant noodles last a long time not because of preservatives, but because they are dry. What actually determines the shelf life is the rate at which the oil soaked into the noodles turns rancid.

So instant noodles were not created by a thriving inventor. They were made in a backyard by a 48-year-old man who had lost everything.

Worth remembering The starting point of this food was not success, but bankruptcy. The story of the side that lent it begins here.

03Wheat Flour Foods Arrive in a Land Running Low on Rice

Around the same time, South Korea was hungry. Jeon Jung-yoon, the founder of Samyang Foods, reportedly saw people lined up at Namdaemun Market to buy ggulgguri-juk (pig porridge). It was a stew boiled from leftover scraps from U.S. military bases. Seeing that line, he remembered the instant noodles he had seen in Japan.

In August 1961, Samyang Industry Co., Ltd.—which later became Samyang Foods—registered its business name. Then, in 1963, Jeon Jung-yoon imported two instant noodle manufacturing machines from Japan's Myojo Foods. A story always told alongside this is that President Okui of Myojo handed over the soup seasoning formula without charging a single technical fee or royalty. While the import of the two machines is documented in official records, the part about the free transfer is a story passed down through memoirs and news reports. The original contract has never been made public.

On September 15, 1963, Korea’s first instant noodles, "Samyang Ramyun," made their debut. A 100g pack cost 10 won. Since a cup of coffee at a tearoom cost 35 won at the time, it was a cheap product. Yet it did not sell well. To people for whom rice was the very definition of a meal, these yellow noodles were neither a proper staple nor a side dish; their identity was ambiguous. People first had to be taught what this unfamiliar food was and how to eat it.

What changed the game was not taste, but policy. At the time, the government was struggling to get people to eat wheat flour instead of scarce rice. On January 23, 1969, every Wednesday and Saturday were designated as "Flour Food Days." On these days from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM, selling rice-based dishes was banned, and restaurants had to mix in at least 25% barley or wheat flour. People called these days Mumi-il (riceless days). This policy lasted until 1977.

The policy created more than just demand; it created a habit. Two days a week, even if you wanted to eat out for lunch, you couldn't buy rice, and ramyun was one of the things that stepped into that gap. What people initially ate because they had no other choice became, after a few years, something they simply ate. A food takes root not just because it tastes good, but because people eat it often.

The effect showed up in the numbers, too. Annual sales of Samyang Ramyun jumped from 2.4 million packages in 1966 to 15 million packages in 1969. In January of that same year, shipments of ramyun were sent to Vietnam, setting Korea's first-ever record for instant noodle exports. More companies entered the market as well. In September 1965, Lotte Industry Co., Ltd. was established to make "Lotte Ramyun," and in January of the following year, its Daebang plant began operations.

A food forced onto people because of a rice shortage had, in that way, grown familiar to their palates. This twist flips once more later in the story. The very flour-based food pushed on citizens to eat would later become an item sent abroad to sell.

Worth remembering Policy, rather than taste, was what first helped this borrowed food take root—a debt that will be repaid at the end of the story.

04How Did Chicken Broth Turn into a Spicy Red Soup?

When instant ramyun first came to Korea, it was not a spicy food. The 1958 Chicken Ramen was based on chicken broth, and the 1963 Samyang Ramyun was also chicken-flavored. Since it came from Japan, it simply imported the flavor profile that was sold in Japan as it was.

Some explain the early sluggishness mentioned earlier through this flavor. The Korean dining table already had a deep and robust foundation of soups. Every meal featured guk, tang, or jjigae, seasoned with garlic, chili peppers, and soy sauce. Simple chicken broth felt plain and unexciting on this table.

In October 1970, Lotte Industrial Co. launched 'Sogogi Ramyun' (Beef Ramyun). It used beef broth instead of chicken broth and gave the soup a spicy red color. It became a massive hit. From that point on, the default setting of Korean ramyun changed. The red soup that people picture today whenever they hear "ramyun soup" established itself back then.

The practical work of changing flavor happens in the soup seasoning. The seasoning inside the bag is usually split into powdered soup and vegetable flakes. The powdered soup is made by taking broth components like beef or beef bone, adding seasonings such as garlic, onion, and soy sauce, and drying them. The vegetable flakes consist of ingredients like scallions, chili peppers, and mushrooms, sliced to uniform sizes and dried. While noodle thickness and shape vary by product, it is usually the soup seasoning that determines the direction of the flavor. Creating a new product was mostly about creating a new soup base.

Because of this, whether a company could manufacture its own soup base became a measure of corporate strength. After Nongshim built a dedicated soup factory in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province in November 1982, 'Neoguri' and 'Yukgaejang Sabalmyun' (Bowl Noodle) were released, followed by 'Ansungtangmyun' in September 1983 and 'Chapagetti' in March 1984. In the same year, Paldo launched 'Paldo Bibim Men.' The market for brothless ramyun opened up during this period.

Company names were also sorted out in this era. In October 1975, Lotte Industrial Co. launched 'Nongshim Ramyun,' which gained huge popularity alongside the famous "After you, brother; after you, younger brother" commercial, and in March 1978, the company changed its name to Nongshim Co., Ltd. Lotte Industrial was frequently mistaken for a heavy machinery company.

Market rankings were decided in this era as well. In March 1985, Nongshim claimed first place domestically with a 40.4% market share, surpassing Samyang Foods. In October 1986, 'Shin Ramyun' made its debut, and in the same year, Paldo's 'Doshirak' made its way to Russia through peddlers at the Port of Busan, establishing a foothold there. In March 1988, Ottogi launched 'Jin Ramen' in two varieties, mild and spicy, and in the same year, Nongshim's market share climbed to 50.6%.

The spicy flavor established during this period would serve an entirely different purpose much later. Domestically, it was just a familiar taste, but abroad, it became the hallmark that distinguished Korean ramyun from instant noodles of other countries. That story will return later.

It took less than a generation for a borrowed flavor to turn into something completely different.

Worth remembering This is where ramyun stops being a Japanese product. The spicy flavor that would later become a powerful weapon for exports is born here.

05When Where People Ate Changed, the Market Changed

The next shift for ramen came not from its flavor, but from where it was eaten.

Momofuku Ando observed how American buyers ate Chikin Ramen. They broke the noodles into pieces, put them in paper cups, poured in hot water, and ate them with forks. Without bowls or chopsticks, that was simply the only way to eat it. That was where the idea was born: What if packaging, cooking utensil, and bowl were combined into one?

On September 18, 1971, Nissin Foods launched the world's first cup ramen, "Cup Noodles," for 100 yen. It was an item that required neither a pot nor a bowl, but what truly popularized this format was not the product itself, but television.

In February 1972, the Asama-Sanso incident was broadcast live. Scenes of riot police officers holding steaming cups and eating in the freezing winter cold were shown across the entire nation. Sales exploded immediately after. The message that this was not food to eat in a kitchen, but food to eat where there is no kitchen was delivered not through an explanation, but through a single image.

Korea was quick as well. In March 1972, Samyang Foods released Korea's first cup ramyun. But this was too early. At the time, ramyun in Korea was still something boiled in a pot at home, and places where you could get hot water outside were rare. The era of cup ramyun in Korea only truly opened in the 1980s. The rise and success of Sabalmyun (bowl ramyun) in the 1980s was part of that same momentum.

Korea had released cup ramyun only about half a year after Japan. What lagged behind was actually the market. You can replicate a product, but you cannot replicate the lifestyle built around it overnight. There first had to be places to get hot water, places where eating while standing did not feel awkward, and places to grab a solitary meal on the go. A place to eat had to come before the product to sell.

Bagged ramyun and cup ramyun may look like the same product, but they sell in completely different ways. Bagged ramyun is bought in bundles to take home, making it price-sensitive, while cup ramyun is bought one at a time to eat on the spot, making placement crucial. So wherever hot water was available, display stands appeared: train stations, highway rest stops, and convenience stores.

A market can grow even without creating a brand-new product. All it takes is expanding where people eat it.

Worth remembering If changing the flavor established its place, this time changing the place expanded the market.

06A Single Tip Brings Down the Market Leader, Acquitted Eight Years Later

On November 3, 1989, prosecutors received an anonymous tip. It claimed that ramyun companies were frying noodles in "industrial-grade beef tallow."

Beef tallow is rendered beef fat. Back then, Korean ramyun noodles were fried in tallow, which gave them their signature savory, rich flavor. The issue came down to the grading of the tallow imported from the United States. Although it was simply classified into a lower technical grade and traded with edible use in mind, the moment the label "industrial-grade" was attached, that explanation fell on deaf ears.

The investigation was swift, and the media coverage was even faster. Prosecutors arrested 10 officials across 5 food companies. Samyang Foods' Dobong-dong factory ground to a halt for three months. A figure often cited is that the market leader's share plummeted from the 60% range to 15%, though this is a figure reported by the press, not verified by primary source data. Still, the sheer scale of the shock to the company is clear enough just from the fact that its factory shut down.

A twist came almost immediately. Just 13 days after the scandal broke, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs announced that the tallow in question was harmless to the human body. Yet what was done could not be undone. The legal battle dragged on, and on August 26, 1997, the Supreme Court finally acquitted all individuals involved. It had taken 7 years and 8 months.

In the meantime, the industry had moved on. Companies abandoned beef tallow and switched to palm oil. Palm oil is a vegetable oil pressed from the fruit of oil palms. When the frying oil changes, the aroma infused into the noodles changes too. That is why, even today, some people still reminisce that ramyun before the scandal tasted much richer.

Even after the innocent verdict, the industry stayed with palm oil. It was not just because the ruling arrived too late. Throughout the prolonged trial, raw material sourcing and manufacturing processes had already been completely restructured around palm oil. The ruling was the only thing that returned; neither the flavor nor the market rankings ever went back.

It would take a long time for the ousted champion to return to the center of the story. And when it did, it wasn't on domestic store shelves, but through an entirely different path. That story begins again in 2012.

What this incident left behind was far more than the fall of a single company. Across those eight years, the entire food industry learned a harsh truth: being "safe" and looking "safe" are two very different things—and they unravel at vastly different speeds.

Worth remembering Even if you prove your innocence, the market never returns—the most expensive lesson this industry ever learned.

07Surrendering the Top Spot in Consumption, Shattering Records in Exports

In April 2012, Samyang Foods released 'Buldak Bokkeummyeon' (Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen). It was a stir-fried noodle dish that eliminated the broth to focus purely on spicy flavor. The initial reaction was not entirely positive. Many reviews complained that it was far too spicy.

The stage where this product grew was not domestic store shelves. While it is widely known that its name spread alongside online videos of spicy food challenges, no data has been confirmed that breaks down this trajectory into numbers. What is clear is that this company, once pushed aside by the beef-tallow scandal, grew once again outside the country rather than at home. Spiciness became the reason, rather than the barrier.

Similar things happened multiple times. In 2020, when the film 'Parasite' won the Academy Award for Best Picture, 'Chapaguri' featured in the movie became a global sensation. It was a mix of Chapagetti and Neoguri in a single pot, both seen in the previous chapter. In 2025, ramen and gimbap featured in the Netflix animation 'K-Pop: Demon Hunters' became a hot topic, causing demand to surge again, and Nongshim released a limited-edition Shin Ramyun featuring the characters. Screens were often involved whenever ramyun spread on a massive scale. Just like the live broadcast in 1972, and the film in 2020.

Exports show a distinct trajectory. South Korea's ramyun exports stood at $219 million in 2015. They reached $765 million in 2022, $952 million in 2023, $1,248.38 million in 2024 (based on the Korea Customs Service), and $1,521 million in 2025. Surpassing $1.5 billion for the first time in history, exports broke record highs for 11 consecutive years since 2015. In the first half of 2026, exports hit a half-year record of $935.4 million. That is a 27.9% increase compared to the same period of the previous year, and this single item—ramyun—accounted for about 80% of the growth in agri-food exports during that same period.

The center of gravity shifted within the companies as well. Over the 40 years since its launch, Shin Ramyun sold a cumulative 42.5 billion units, surpassing 20 trillion won in cumulative sales; as of 2025, about 60% of this brand's sales come from overseas. In 2025, Samyang Foods posted sales of 2.3518 trillion won and an operating profit of 523.9 billion won, with overseas sales accounting for the 80% range. An item once created to get people to eat flour had turned into a product that, depending on the company, earns more than half its sales abroad.

In January 2026, the Oxford English Dictionary added 'ramyeon' as a new entry. Eight Korean words were added together, including bingsu, jjimjilbang, haenyeo, and ajumma. What matters is that it was listed as an entry separate from the already registered 'ramen'. It was treated as an independent name, not a derivative of Japanese ramen.

Yet around the same time, there was another record heading in the opposite direction. In terms of per capita consumption, South Korea had ranked number one in the world for 8 consecutive years from 2013 to 2020, but surrendered the top spot to Vietnam in 2021. According to 2024 statistics, the annual number of packs consumed per person was 81 for Vietnam and 79 for South Korea. This is a different metric from the gross totals seen earlier. While surrendering the number one spot in consumption, exports were shattering records in reverse.

Worth remembering This is the moment a borrowed food entered the dictionary under its own name, right around the time it gave up another number one spot.

08What Should We Watch Going Forward?

There is no need to predict the future. Instead, looking back at the journey this story has taken, let's sort out what signs we should be watching.

First is where exports are heading. In ramyun exports for 2025, China accounted for $385 million, or 25.3%, while the United States accounted for $255 million, or 16.7%. Together, these two countries make up more than 40% of the total. When a single product is concentrated in just a few markets, any shift in local regulations, tariffs, or consumer trends causes that much greater turbulence. News that exports are up and news of where they are growing are two very different stories.

Second is sodium. When the Korea Consumer Agency surveyed 12 instant noodle products in 2014, the average sodium per packet was 1,729 mg. That was 86.5% of the daily nutritional reference value of 2,000 mg used on food labels. In the same survey, average saturated fat was 7.7 g, or 51.3% of the daily reference value. Keep in mind, these are figures from the 2014 survey. There have since been steady reports of manufacturers reducing sodium, so today's numbers on store shelves may well be different. The exact amount for each product is listed on the back of the package.

Another frequent question is how much sodium you avoid if you leave the broth behind. While it's true that most of it sits in the soup, noodles soak up broth as well. A commonly cited estimate is that roughly 70 to 80% is in the broth and seasoning packet, and 20 to 30% is in the noodles, but because there are no official product-by-product measurements, this should only be taken as a rough guide.

Third is the form of the noodle. What usually comes to mind when we think of ramyun is deep-fried noodles. Air-dried noodles, dried with hot air without frying, contain no oil and have a longer shelf life, but their cooking time and texture are different. How the balance between these two formats shifts serves as a gauge showing where the industry is looking.

Fourth is price. Ramyun is continually dragged into conversations about inflation. On July 1, 2023, Nongshim responded to government requests for price stabilization by cutting the price of Shin Ramyun by 4.5%, from 1,000 won to 950 won, and Ottogi and Samyang Foods soon followed suit. It was the first time the price of Shin Ramyun had dropped in 13 years, since 2010. As long as it holds the status of 'cheap food,' this item will keep being called to the table whenever prices are discussed.

Finally, just one more thing. At the start of this story, Korea was on the borrowing end. It was the party that received two machines, and, as the story goes, a recipe blend. Today, Korean ramyun sits on supermarket shelves in other countries, being adapted once again to suit local tastes. We've just watched from beginning to end how long it takes for a borrowed food to truly become one's own. As for who comes next, we don't know yet.

Worth remembering Not predictions, but a spectator's guide: where it is sold, what is inside, which noodle it uses, and how much it costs.