Korea’s New Beef-Tallow Ramyun: Samyang 1963 and Jjareureu, Against Shin Ramyun
Samyang revived the frying fat at the centre of the 1989 scandal it was acquitted of, and sold 7 million units in a month at double the usual price. Launch dates, prices, the no-drain jjajang method, the reported reception figures, and where it sits against Shin Ramyun.
TL;DR — Samyang has built two new products around beef tallow, the frying fat at the centre of a 1989 scandal that nearly destroyed the company and that it was cleared of eight years later. Samyang 1963 launched on 3 November 2025 — exactly 36 years to the day after the tip-off that started it — and sold 7 million units in its first month at roughly 1.5–2× the price of ordinary ramyun. Jjareureu, a beef-tallow jjajang, followed on 8 July 2026. This is a reported comparison against Shin Ramyun, not a tasting: I have not eaten either, and everything below is sourced.
Left: Samyang Ramen, Korea's first instant ramyun (1963). Right: Shin Ramyun (1986), the product that took the market from it. Composite of two photographs by Mobius6, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; this composite is likewise CC BY-SA 4.0.
What actually launched
Two products, both defined by one ingredient decision: the noodles are fried in beef tallow rather than palm oil.
| Samyang 1963 | Jjareureu (짜르르) | |
|---|---|---|
| Launched | 3 Nov 2025 | 8 Jul 2026 (pre-orders 1–5 Jul) |
| Type | Premium soup ramyun | Premium jjajang (black bean) |
| Frying fat | Beef tallow | Beef tallow |
| Price | ₩6,150 per 4-pack ≈ ₩1,538 each | not published |
| Reference price | ordinary ramyun ₩800–1,000 | — |
| Distinguishing method | tallow-fried noodles, revived 1963 recipe | roasted doenjang-and-onion sauce; you do not drain the water |
That last row is the unusual one. Standard Korean jjajang ramyun tells you to pour the noodle water away before mixing in the powder. Jjareureu ships a liquid sauce and tells you to keep the water, on the reasoning that the water now carries flavour rendered out of the tallow-fried noodles. Samyang's own framing is that the tallow frying produces "deep, savoury flavour" offering "a new option in the premium jjajang market."
Why beef tallow is the whole story
To a reader outside Korea this looks like an ordinary ingredient swap. In Korea it is not.
On 3 November 1989, an anonymous letter reached prosecutors alleging that food companies were frying noodles in industrial-grade tallow — the sort used for soap and lubricants. Five companies were named, including Samyang, and ten executives and staff were detained. Coverage was ferocious.
The Ministry of Health concluded on 6 November that the products were harmless, and everyone detained was released by 28 November. Samyang was fully acquitted — but the final Supreme Court ruling did not come until 1997, more than eight years later. By then the damage was done: over a million boxes of ramyun destroyed, roughly a thousand employees gone, and market share fallen from around 30% to around 10%. The identity of the person who sent the letter has never been established.
Samyang stopped using beef tallow. It switched to palm oil, like everyone else, and stayed there for 36 years.
So "Samyang 1963", launched on the anniversary of the tip-off, is not a neutral product name. The company's stated reason is culinary — reinterpreting "the advantages of the beef tallow used 60-odd years ago to suit today's manufacturing technology and consumer tastes" — but the date is doing work the press release does not mention.
The fuller version of that history, and of the sixty-year rivalry it sits inside, is a separate piece.
The reception, in numbers
This is where the story stops being about heritage and starts being about whether it sold.
Samyang 1963, first month:
- 7 million units cumulative — Samyang states this is about 80% of original Samyang Ramen's monthly average for the year
- Roughly 80 million views across company-made and creator-made video content
- Pop-up store: Naver pre-booking sold out in 5 minutes, 10,000+ visitors in 7 days, about 1,500 daily on-site waitlist registrations
Jjareureu, after a girl-group video:
- Weekend sales doubled week-on-week following a YouTube video featuring the group Rescene
- Orders reported up 28×
Both sets of figures come from Samyang or from coverage of Samyang's announcements. Treat them as company-reported. Nobody independent has audited them, and "80% of the original's monthly average" is a comparison the company chose.
Against Shin Ramyun
The honest comparison is narrower than most articles pretend, because I have not tasted these. What can be compared is what is documented.
| Shin Ramyun | Samyang Ramen (original) | Samyang 1963 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First sold | 1986 | 15 Sep 1963 | 3 Nov 2025 |
| Broth base | beef | chicken (originally) | beef tallow-fried noodle, soup base |
| Frying fat | palm oil | palm oil | beef tallow |
| Weight | 120 g | 120 g | not published |
| Calories | ~500 kcal | ~515 kcal | not published |
| Price band | ordinary | ordinary | ~1.5–2× ordinary |
| Market position | penetration leader | heritage line | premium challenger |
The structural point: Shin Ramyun is not what Samyang 1963 is competing with on price. At about ₩1,538 a packet it sits above the standard shelf entirely. Samyang's bet is that there is a premium soup-ramyun tier in Korea that did not previously exist as a real category, and that beef tallow is a good enough reason to charge for it.
The case against
A round-up that only reports the launch numbers is a press release. Two things cut the other way.
Premium has to justify itself repeatedly. Consumer researcher Lee Eun-hui, quoted in The Scoop, puts the test plainly: for a premium product, what matters is "whether it can offer enough of a difference that consumers will pay extra." A first month sells on curiosity. The second and third months sell on the difference being real.
The target demographic is price-sensitive right now. The same coverage notes the risk that younger consumers with thinner wallets may not stay with a product at double the usual price — a different situation from Buldak, which won that group in 2012 with addictive heat at an ordinary price.
And the comparison Samyang chose flatters the result. Beating 80% of the original Samyang Ramen's monthly volume is impressive for a new premium SKU. It is not a claim about Shin Ramyun, whose penetration Nongshim still reports at over half of the category.
What this means if you are buying from outside Korea
- Samyang 1963 is the one to try if you want the thing that is actually new. Tallow-fried noodles are not something you can buy from the other big Korean makers.
- Jjareureu is the more interesting cooking experiment, because of the no-drain method. If you have made Chapagetti before, this is the same category run differently.
- Neither replaces Shin Ramyun as a default. Shin is a standard-price staple; these are a tier above and priced accordingly.
- Export availability lags Korean launch, and Samyang's overseas volume is dominated by Buldak. Do not assume these are on your local shelf yet.
What this article does not do
I have not tasted Samyang 1963 or Jjareureu. There is no scoring, no ranking, and no "I preferred X" here, because that would be invented. What is here is the launch record, the company-reported reception figures, the documented history behind the ingredient, and the specifications that are published.
The nutrition figures for Samyang 1963 and the price of Jjareureu were not published in the sources reviewed, so those cells are blank rather than estimated.
Sales figures are Samyang's own. Market share statements are as reported. Where a number comes from a company and not an auditor, this article says so.
FAQ
What is Samyang 1963?
A premium soup ramyun launched on 3 November 2025 whose noodles are fried in beef tallow rather than palm oil, reviving the method Samyang used when it made Korea's first instant ramyun in 1963. It sells at roughly ₩1,538 a packet against ₩800–1,000 for ordinary ramyun.
What is Jjareureu?
Samyang's beef-tallow jjajang ramyun, on sale from 8 July 2026. Its distinguishing instruction is that you do not drain the noodle water — a liquid sauce is mixed into it, so the flavour rendered from the tallow-fried noodles stays in the dish.
Why did Samyang stop using beef tallow in the first place?
A 1989 prosecution alleged industrial-grade tallow was being used in food. The health ministry declared the products harmless within days and Samyang was ultimately acquitted, but the final ruling took until 1997 and the company's market share fell from about 30% to about 10% in the meantime. It moved to palm oil and stayed there for 36 years.
Is beef tallow ramyun better than Shin Ramyun?
Unanswerable from the record, and this article does not claim to answer it. They are not competing at the same price: Samyang 1963 costs roughly 1.5–2× a standard packet. What is documented is that it sold 7 million units in a month, and that analysts quoted at the time doubted premium pricing would hold with younger buyers.
Are these vegetarian?
No. The defining feature of both is that the noodles are fried in beef tallow, an animal fat. Ramyun fried in palm oil — including Shin Ramyun — is a different case, but check the soup base separately.
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