Samyang Foods, once a Korean ramen pioneer and legend, is making a splash in the global ramen market with Buldak Ramen, a spicy ramen brand.
Buldak Ramen has established itself of its mainstay brand in Korea and globally, earning some 1.4 trillion won in annual overseas sales last year, trying to restore its previous glory.
Buldak (Bokkeummyeon) Ramen or Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen is the brainchild of Vice Chairman & CEO Kim Jung-soo of Samyang Foods, thinking out of the box.
She pondered launching of new products differing from the conventional red water ramen products and took to her heart an idea of a strongly spicy ramen when he happened to visit a hot food restaurant in Myeongdong, downtown Seoul, in which youngsters were seen eating hot foods deliciously and sweating buckets to relieve stress.
And Kim, intuitively sensing a potential demand for hot tastes, soon ordered the development of a new ramen based on three criteria – very hot taste, soup-free, fried ramen and chicken flavor people enjoy regardless of their preference.
Staff members at marketing departments and researchers had joined forces to develop a “spicy, fried ramen,” an unfamiliar category at that time.
They toured famous hot chicken, hot gopchang (beef intestine) and spicy chicken feet eateries across the nation for tasting while they devolved themselves to looking into a variety of peppers in several countries and developing a “delicious, spicy source.”
In order to gain a spicy taste, favored most by Koreans, the staffers endeavored to find an optimal source ratio by mixing peppers from all regions around the globe, such as Cheongyang pepper, chile habanero, Vietnamese pepper, tabasco and jolokia.
Buldak Ramen made its debut in April 2012 after undergoing a myriad of trials and errors to an extent in which researchers with a weak stomach took medicines to treat too spicy tasting.
Buldak (Bokkeummyeon) Ramen, which made its debut in 2012 has seen its cumulative sales surge to 8 billion units as of September 2025.
‘Buldak Brand’ Enters Global Market
Word of mouth began to spread among Korean manias over Buldak Ramen’s differentiated extremely spicy taste, and it was highlighted globally from 2016.
It was a video, titled “Fire Noodle Challenge,” posted by a British Youtuber. “Fire Noodle Challenge” has established itself as a kind of vogue and game culture as people, seeing guys eating and tearing over the hot taste, followed suit.
Subsequently, the overseas demand for Buldak Ramen had shot up in 2016.
In an early stage of exporting, growth was outstanding in the Asian region, such as China and Southeast Asia, familiar to spicy tastes.
China and Southeast Asia had emerged as the biggest export areas as Samyang Foods saw its overseas sales take up almost 80 percent share.
Samyang Foods had solidified its exclusive presence in the Asian market as Korea’s representative spicy ramen by continuously diversifying products tailored to meet local needs, such as “Mara Buldak Bokgemmyeon (Fried Ramen)” and “Curry Buldak Bokgemmyeon.”
Furthermore, the food maker, obtaining a Halal certification earlier, has managed to enter the Southeast Asian region with 60 percent of the world’s all Muslims.
Samyang Foods got KMF Halal certificate in 2014 and the nation’s first ramen maker to obtain the MUI Halal certificate in 2017.
In the 2020s or later, growth in Americas and European region became outstanding.
Aian population in the region, familiar to spicy tastes, tends to show a high demand over the Buldak brand.
The attention over the Buldak brand begum to explode on the back of the greater popularity of Korean content, such as K-pop and K-drama, on the rage before and after 2020.
In particular, Cardi B, a famous U.S. rapper posted an SNS video showing his driving a car, buying and cooking “Carbo Buldak Bokkeummyeon Ramen,” provoking a sensation.
The ramen product attracted a tremendous attention, enough in short supply.
The New York Times shed a light on the popularity of the product and short supply under the headline “Good Luck Getting Your Hands on Buldak Carbonara Ramen.”
A girl, tearing with emotions for the gift “Carbo Buldak Bokkeummyeon Ramen,” in short supply, made a sensation on the SNS. The video gained an explosive response of some 100 million views.
The Buldak brand become the nation’s first food brand to be an official partner of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, attracting a global attention.
At the venue of the festival, there was a pinky, emotional “Buldak booth” in which hands-on events, such as tasting “K-Spicy flavors” in various methods attracted a steam of visitors.
To name them, global celebrities, such as Grammy Award nominee artist and female rapper GroRilla, Enhypen, a Korean boy band famous for its debut at Coachella, Chu Sung-hoon, Ava Michelle, the heroine of Netflix “Tall Girl,” and Liza Soberano, an actress-cum model with 18 million followers, toured the pavilion.
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