Samyang Foods, a South Korean instant-noodle maker whose Buldak Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen has become one of the country’s most successful food exports, spent years perfecting the product’s signature sauce before it evolved into a viral social-media phenomenon and a staple in supermarkets across the United States.
Kim Jung-soo, chairwoman of Samyang Foods and the executive widely credited with leading Buldak’s global expansion, said Tuesday that the company used 1,200 chickens and discarded roughly 4,410 pounds of sauce while developing the recipe.
Speaking at a youth mentorship event hosted by the Federation of Korean Industries, South Korea’s largest business lobby group, in Seoul, Kim said Samyang devoted far more time and resources to the sauce than to the noodles themselves.
“Buldak Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen was designed as a vessel for the sauce,” Kim said. “What we wanted to create was not simply a spicy taste, but a flavor that exists just before the limit consumers can endure.”
According to Kim, Samyang refined the sauce through hundreds and eventually thousands of trials in an effort to create what she described as a delicate balance between pain and pleasure.
The company’s confidence in the product was tested early. After Buldak was launched in 2012, the noodle drew little market attention for nearly two years. Kim said she nevertheless remained convinced that consumers would eventually seek out the experience the product offered.
That conviction paid off in 2014, when videos of English-speaking YouTube creators taking the “Buldak Challenge” began spreading online. The clips rapidly gained traction, helping transform Buldak from a niche Korean instant noodle into a global internet sensation.
“At that moment, Buldak had already moved beyond ramen and become a symbol of challenge,” Kim said.
Buldak’s rise has become a case study in how South Korean consumer brands can leverage distinctive products and social media to expand internationally. The brand has benefited from the broader global popularity of Korean culture while maintaining an identity centered on extreme heat and challenge.
Addressing young participants, Kim urged them not to wait for perfect conditions before pursuing their ambitions.
“Direction does not reveal itself while standing still,” she said. “It gradually appears only to those who continue moving.”
Responding to questions from foreign attendees, Kim said understanding cultural differences while strengthening a product’s core competitiveness remains essential for global success in the food industry.
