If you enjoy snacks, one thing you'll learn if you live in Japan is that your local convenience store is often the best place to find classics but also the latest varieties. Especially when it comes to chips and other snacks, the selection changes at an amazing pace, with new flavors appearing on shelves so frequently that it's not uncommon to see something new almost every week.

We've seen our share of new snacks through the years, but one snack caught our attention when we visited our local 7-Eleven the other day:

Oyatsu Company's "Baby-Star Ramen Maru Hakata Ippudo Akamaru Shinaji Flavor"

Baby-Star ramen snacks

Baby Star Ramen is a popular snack and kid favorite that has been around since 1959, with the concept of "ramen that you can eat as is (from the package)". Even if you haven't heard of Baby-Star Ramen, many of our readers probably know that some people (perhaps more frequently in some parts of the world than others) like to take instant ramen, break it up into pieces and just eat it like a snack.

Oyatsu Company began selling Baby-Star Ramen Maru in 1999, in a circular format that looks like the content of an instant ramen bowl shrunk to a tiny size.

So then, this product is a special version of Baby-Star Ramen Maru produced in collaboration with the famous chain Ippudo, known for their Hakata style tonkotsu ramen. That's the part that surprised us. We had seen and tried instant versions of ramen from various ramen shops and chains at convenience stores before, including Ippudo, but we had never seen this kind of collaboration in a snack.

Two flavors were available, Shiromaru Motoaji (Classic) and Akamaru Shinaji (Modern), but we settled on the latter, since it was our favorite at Ippudo (the restaurant).

Baby-Star Ramen Maru Hakata Ippudo Akamaru Shinaji Flavor

When he first saw it, we thought it might be a smaller version of an instant ramen product. The picture on the packaging showed an appetizing bowl of Akamaru Modern, after all. On closer inspection, however, we saw the words Baby-Star Ramen Maru.

We peeled back the lid and peered inside, to find dozens of little Ramen Marus staring back at us. They did look appetizing, with a golden brown color and little red spots which looked like the spicy Umami Dama miso paste that gives such great flavor to the Akamaru Modern.

Enough staring. Time for snacking...

We popped one in our mouth. The crunchy texture was familiar to us since we had tried Baby-Star before, but this one definitely had a pronounced tonkotsu flavor, as well as a hint of miso and pepper!

We can't say that it reproduces the entire flavor profile of an Akamaru Modern, but there was definitely something close to it. For 149 JPY, we thought it was worth the purchase.

An experiment

Actually, we bought two of them. One to try as is, and the other one to try an experiment. It was something that occurred to us the moment we realized what the snack was: If we poured hot water over these Ippudo ramen flavored snack, would we end up with something close to an Ippudo ramen?

For the record, there is a label on the snack clearly stating: "Please enjoy this snack as it is without pouring water over it." Therefore, please understand that Oyatsu Company does not recommend this in any way. But we couldn't contain our curiosity, so we tried it anyway...

After waiting five minutes and mixing it up with a spoon, we ended up with something which looked a bit like alphabet soup. We were right in assuming that the flavor would be too watered-down if we used too much hot water so we only poured it halfway up.

So, how was it? That tasty tonkotsu flavor was there but the texture of the snack was a distraction. Let's just say that this could work in a pinch when you want something hot but we wouldn't try it again.

Oyatsu Company knows their product. Best to listen to them when they recommend laying off the hot water.

You can find Shiromaru Motoaji (Classic) and Akamaru Shinaji (Modern) Baby-Star Ramen Maru snacks at Japanese convenience stores and other stores where snacks are sold throughout Japan.