Cup Noodles Debuts Dill Pickle Instant Ramen

Cup Noodles is known for classic flavors like shrimp, chicken, beef, and seafood, but the instant ramen company occasionally likes to think outside the box. Its latest unexpected variety is dill pickle.

Cup Noodles introduced a salty, vinegar-forward version of its classic noodle soup to store shelves on June 21. Like the original recipe, all you need to do is simply pour hot water into the cup and wait a few minutes before enjoying the portable meal. Unlike the familiar flavors, the pickle Cup Noodles will only be available for a limited time at Walmart, Albertsons, and other select retailers. Adventurous eaters can pick it up for $1.17 a cup while they can.

Nissan Foods USA’s senior vice president of marketing, Priscila Stanton, told Food & Wine that the company “wanted to lean into something bold and unexpected that still felt familiar,” so pickle-flavored ramen seemed like an appropriate move. Popeyes apparently believed the same when it released a selection of pickle-flavored items in April of this year. The special menu from the fast food chain restaurant featured pickle glaze chicken wings, a pickle glaze fried chicken sandwich, and a chilled pickle lemonade.

These recent products are part of a larger pickle trend currently sweeping the U.S. We now have pickle beer and pickle popsicles, and on the non-edible side of things, glittery pickles have become an unlikely TikTok trend. 

Pickle-flavored noodles might sound wild, but Cup Noodles has taken things ever further in the past. The brand’s other limited-edition offerings included noodles inspired by the most important meal of the day, breakfast, meant to taste like maple syrup, pancakes, sausage, and eggs. They’ve even dabbled in dessert instant ramen with a marshmallow-flavored campfire s’mores version and a questionable pumpkin spice variety.

Read More About Ramen: