Kansui is potassium carbonate and sodium carbonate mixed with water... which sounds weird, and tastes weird(actually-- just really bad, with T-Pain saying it tasted like the devil's behind when he tasted it at our facility). Most people have never heard of it.

We use it because it's the secret ingredient to good noodles.

There is no absolutely no other way to get authentic ramen bite and chew. You can't fake it with baking soda, you can't approximate it with other alkaline salts, you can't shortcut it with food coloring to make it look like you did the work, which... is what a lot of companies do instead of actually using this.

See, the alkaline environment (pH around 9-10) changes how wheat proteins behave, and instead of the soft, extensible gluten network you get in bread, you get firm, springy noodle texture that holds up in hot broth.

Kansui also reacts with flavonoids in wheat flour to create that distinctive yellow color, which, interestingly enough, is something we're not entirely sure why it happens, just that it does.

Without it, our noodles just wouldn't have the same chew and bounce that good noodles should have!