Having ”ramen” is easy as adding hot water and waiting three minutes. Nisshin’s Cup Noodles is where it all began, and it is consumed worldwide. You can observe the history of Cup Noodles, from the original ”Chicken Ramen”, the world’s very first instant ”ramen” to current Cup Noodles products at this museum.
Chicken Ramen was first invented in 1958. You can see how instant ”ramen” and Cup Noodles evolved through its 50 plus years of history at a glance. In the ”Instant Noodles History Cube” section, all the past products are on display. ”This one was my favorite.” ”I had that one a lot,” exclaimed Nakata, a self-proclaimed Cup Noodles fanatic.
Interactive museum
The biggest appeal of Cup Noodles Museum is that it is interactive. You can knead dough to make the noodles from scratch, add flavor and dry it to make ”My Chicken Ramen.” You can also combine soup and toppings of your choosing in a cup you designed yourself to make ”My Cup Noodles.” We were unable to try this due to time constraints, and Nakata was very disappointed.
Momofuku Ando, the creator of Chicken Ramen, was 48 years old when he first invented Chicken Ramen. He alone created ”ramen” you can eat just by adding hot water. Later, he also invented Cup Noodles. It was conceived when he was traveling in the US at age 56. He witnessed men breaking up Chicken Ramen noodles, putting them in a cup and eating them. This became a product when he was 61 years old. He also was involved in developing ”Space Ramen” at age 95. How can we not respect him for his creativity! With 98.2 billion instant ”ramen” sold a year, it has truly become global. ”Instant ramen” is a product of passion and creativity.