The food mash-up you didn’t see coming: Kraft Dinner makes ramen now
But how does it taste?
That line you notice snaking around the corner from your closest 7-Eleven? No, they’re not having a sale on egg salad sandos—the store is giving away Kraft Dinner’s new KD Ramen. Yes, that’s right: the childhood macaroni-and-cheese staple that is considered, in some kitchens, as iconically Canadian as maple syrup is expanding into the increasingly popular category known as TikTok stunt food.
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If you’ve spent much time in the digital micro culture known as #ramenhacks, you probably know that the marriage of Japanese noodles and cheese has been a thing for a while now. In fact, the counter-intuitive combo began decades ago in South Korea, when adding a Kraft Single to instant ramen became a way to tone down the spice while upping the calories. TikTok “discovered” and popularized the hack more recently, part of the wider Gen Z obsession with creamy ramen, especially the stuff from Buldak.
So it makes sense that KD—the previous title holder of the go-to snack for students and stoners—is making a play to reclaim the market. The new line comes in three flavours: cheesy, extra cheesy and extra spicy. Each bowl comes with an envelope of the usual neon-orange cheese powder, plus a second pack of ramen seasoning which brings the almighty umami flavour. Of course, the real question is: How does it taste?
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The answer: pretty darn...okay. If I was horizontal and half-baked on my couch halfway through an episode of Mormon Wives, it would probably taste excellent. The ramen flavours overpower the cheese, but Kraft Dinner has always been sort of pleasingly bland.
The extra spicy flavour is the winner, with a bit more bite and overall balance—no big surprise since it was the unholy marriage of spice and processed cheese that kicked off this craze in the first place.
Courtney Shea is a freelance journalist in Toronto. She started her career as an intern at Toronto Life and continues to contribute frequently to the publication, including her 2022 National Magazine Award–winning feature, “The Death Cheaters,” her regular Q&As and her recent investigation into whether Taylor Swift hung out at a Toronto dive bar (she did not). Courtney was a producer and writer on the 2022 documentary The Talented Mr. Rosenberg, based on her 2014 Toronto Life magazine feature “The Yorkville Swindler.”
