Cup Noodles' Everything Bagel With Cream Cheese Ramen Pulls Off The Impossible

When Cup Noodles (owned by Nissin Foods) recently announced that it would be releasing a ramen flavor called Everything Bagel with Cream Cheese, I'm pretty sure I just dropped everything I was doing and stared out the window for a few minutes. I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised; Cup Noodles released a breakfast ramen with the flavors of maple syrup, pancakes, sausage, and egg last year, and that pancake ramen was actually good. So when the brand offered to send me a sample to try, I had my initial hesitations — but my curiosity eventually won out, and I wanted to see if these noodles would deliver on their flavor promise.

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Unlike most of Cup Noodles' offerings, the Everything Bagel with Cream Cheese ramen is brothless. That means you shouldn't expect a soupy bowl but rather one with a thicker sauce that clings to the noodles as you eat them.

Upon opening the package, you'll see the evidence of the everything bagel spice immediately. There's a large quantity of poppy seeds and dried minced onions, and you can certainly smell the garlic. The seasoning is dispersed in a white powder that looks a lot like non-dairy coffee creamer, though it's important to note that non-fat milk is listed in the ingredients, so this isn't a vegan product.

Preparing it is just like any other Cup Noodles product; you fill the cup up to the fill line, microwave it for four minutes, and then stir the noodles thoroughly when they come out.

Cup Noodles isn't fooling around when it says this is a brothless product; the resulting sauce that's created after the cup's trip through the microwave is very thick and clings heavily to the noodles. But that's a good thing, because that means that the spices cling to the noodles, too, and don't all sink to the bottom of the cup.

And I'll be damned — these noodles actually taste like an everything bagel with cream cheese. Everything bagel seasoning is a pretty dominant flavor, so the spice profile's ability to do the heavy lifting makes sense, but the fact that the sauce also tastes like cream cheese is remarkable. It's creamy, tangy, and, most importantly, really fun to eat.

If you wanted to dress the noodles up at all, I think a simple sprinkling of green onions would really do the trick. It's hard not to want to stir some lox in there, too, but I have a feeling that the residual heat from the microwave would cook the fish and change its texture. But hey, I'm not here to stop you. Live like the wild horses you are, and do what brings you joy.

There's only one retailer that sells the new ramen, which is out now, and that's Walmart. It retails for an impressively low $1.18 per package, which means that if you're curious, it's a low-stakes game for your wallet. Oh, and the breakfast pancake ramen I mentioned earlier that I loved last year? It's back, too.

It's interesting to see how Cup Noodles has been able to fashion its limited-time products to American tastes, walking that tightrope between shock value and making something descent-tasting. It definitely beats the hell out of Hidden Valley Ranch ice cream, that's for sure.