Nissin Cup Noodle Big — Japanese Original Soy Sauce, 103g

The Japanese Cup Noodle, in Nissin's bigger cup: the original soy-sauce flavour. It is a savoury shoyu broth built on chicken and pork stock together, edged with garlic and pepper, and five dried toppings sit loose in the cup rather than in a sachet. If you ate this in Japan and have been trying to find it here, this is the one.

カップヌードル ビッグ, the name on the pack, so you can check what arrives.

This is Nissin's standard Cup Noodle: the flagship recipe, not the lighter reduced-fat version and not the premium Cup Noodle PRO line. Of its three sizes, mini, regular and big, this is the big one.

What you're getting

• A broth with two stocks in it. Chicken and pork together rather than one or the other, with garlic and pepper behind them and a bamboo-shoot note underneath: savoury and rounded rather than sharp.
• Five dried toppings, already in the cup. Mince, egg, prawn, pork and spring onion, loose in there. Nothing to tear open and nothing to stir in.
• The "mystery meat", explained. The brown nuggets are a pork mince made with soy protein. Japanese customers nicknamed them 謎肉 (nazoniku), mystery meat, long before Nissin said what was in them.
• Japanese pack, Japanese instructions. This is the domestic cup, so what is printed on it is in Japanese.
• It is a big cup, and opinions differ. Japanese reviewers split between buying it because the regular size leaves them hungry and finding they could not finish it. Worth knowing before you order three.
• Allergens: Nissin declares crustacean (prawn), wheat, egg, milk, sesame and soy, and it is made with pork and chicken. That is the maker's own declaration for this cup, and it is wider than the named ingredients, because the seasonings are not broken down. Read the pack's own label before you rely on ours.

Three things worth knowing before you buy. This is not the Nissin cup from the supermarket: the ones Coles ranges are seafood and chicken cups, supplied locally and made outside Japan, so the soy-sauce original is a different product rather than a dearer version of the same thing. It is not vegetarian: there is pork, chicken, egg and prawn in it. And "big" is a real but modest step up: 103 g against the standard cup's 78 g, so roughly 1.3 times as much, not double.

To make it, you need 400 mL of boiling water, poured to the line moulded on the inside of the cup, there is no fill mark on the outside, and then the time printed on the pack, look for a numeral followed by 分, the Japanese character for minutes. A kettle is the only equipment involved. Do not microwave it in its own cup. Nissin's own guidance warns of fire risk from the aluminium lid and of the cup deforming; if you must microwave it, tip it into a microwave-safe dish first.

One last thing, because it trips up anyone comparing listings: you will see this cup sold as 101 g in plenty of places. Nissin renewed it in August 2025, bigger mince pieces, more toppings, and the weight went to 103 g under the same barcode. 103 g is the current pack, and it is the one we stock.