Spicy Snacks: Buldak Original Flavor Chips

Bottom Line: The Buldak Original Flavor Chips come close the taste of the ramen noodles and deliver on the heat.

Buldak is a brand of ramen noodles from Samyang that has been gaining popularity over the last few years on social media thanks to its notoriously spicy offerings. The brand is also starting to pop up in more places: the sauce included with the ramen packets is now sold in stores, Panda Express has released a dish that incorporates the sauce, and now there are Buldak potato chips. I stumbled across the chips at World Market this past weekend and had to give them a try. They come in three flavors: Original, Habanero Lime, and Quattro Cheese. I decided to start off with the Original, which is based on the hot sauce included with the noodles.

These have an immediate sweetness, followed by a rich, peppery flavor. They don’t have the hot sauce tang you might expect from this type of chip and instead remind me more of a spicy barbecue flavor. There’s also a hint of the chicken seasoning that goes into the noodles, so these come close to replicating the taste of the ramen (with some extra sweetness). The chips are the standard thin style (like original Lay’s), though they seem to hold up better than that brand’s basic offering, and they deliver a decent crunch.

As for the heat, the Buldak chips deliver just as you’d expect. They quickly climb up to the Hot level on my scale and even go a little beyond after munching on a few. So often, “spicy” snack offerings fall short, rarely getting past Mild. But just like the noodles, these chips bring the burn. Combined with the good flavor, they’re jumping up to the top of my list as a new favorite.

As mentioned, I found these at World Market, where they sell for $5.99 for a 4.23 oz bag. I also saw them online at Target for around four bucks for the same size, though I haven’t found them in stores yet. They’re put out by Samyang, and as far as I know, they’re not on loan from Limited-Time-Only-Ville. That said, you may have to hunt around to find them for now, and expect to pay a bit of a premium until they start hitting more store shelves.

Nutrition Information:

Ingredients: Potato, palm oil, buldak seasoning [dextrin, salt, sugar, corn syrup, chili pepper powder, hydrolyzed soybean powder, silicon dioxide, yeast extract powder, tomato powder, onion powder, paprika color, capsicum oleoresin, spices, garlic powder, artificial flavors, black pepper powder, sunflower oil, maltodextrin, monosodium glutamate, tricalcium phosphate, habanero pepper oleoresin, steviol glycosides, xylose, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, wheat gluten, sucralose, sesame oil].

Serving Size: 28g (About 18 Chips)
Calories: 160
Fat: 11g (3.5g Sat/0 Trans)
Protein: 2g
Carbs: 14g
Sodium: 230mg