Nissin claims these noodles are their longest ever, and we’re here to put that claim to the test.

What’s your favorite gimmick product? Sometimes, to get ahead in this cut-throat capitalistic society of ours, you have to really think outside the box to get your product off the shelves. Advertising in a strange way can help, of course, and there’s also the option of bringing out new and exciting products to tempt customers to part with their cash.

When it comes to instant noodles, this is usually done by adding new tasty (or bizarre) flavors to the line-up. Nissin, perhaps the most famous instant noodle brand, decided to try another tack. Instead of offering a different flavor of noodles, how about a different…length?

▼ Presenting Donbei Tempura Soba-Longer-Than-Usual Soba to Wish You Longevity.

Our reporter P.K. Sanjun has long given up on wondering why Nissin makes the promotional product choices that they do, but even he was startled by this decision. Longest noodles? Why? There is, specifically, a time and a place for long noodles in Japan. Toshikoshi soba is a New Year’s tradition where the extra-long, thin buckwheat noodles represent a long and healthy life going forward.

This product goes on sale February 8, though, so it seems a bit late for that.

Anyway, P.K.’s interest was piqued now, and he was especially concerned with the comparative word “longer”. Longer than what? Their usual noodles? Well, then. Clearly, it was time to whip out a ruler and do some measuring.

▼ He found a typical pot of Donbei tempura soba noodles for comparison’s sake.

P.K. dug out a noodle from the regular Donbei noodle package and set about measuring it.

▼ 57 centimeters (1.8 feet)! Not too shabby!

The stakes had risen somewhat. 22.4 inches is a significant length for any respectable noodle. The extra-long noodles purport to measure about 1 meter (3.3 feet), which is slightly less than double the length of this particular noodle.

P.K. fished around in his noodles to find a likely candidate from the extra-long noodles…and came up short.

▼ Get it? Came up short?

Okay, okay, not all of the noodles are that full meter in length. Some of them have been cut in order to better facilitate the eating experience. Despite that, he did find that the majority of the noodles were around a meter in length, or slightly shorter at around 80 centimeters!

P.K. wasn’t satisfied simply with comparing lengths at this point, though. He wanted to find the big one. The ultimate noodle. The longest noodle in the batch.

▼ Some assistance was required to measure these ludicrously long noodles.

The research paid off. The ultimate noodle was discovered, with a length of…

▼ 120 centimeters (3.9 feet)!

Why not advertise the noodles with this measurement instead? I mean, sure, one meter is impressive, but this noodle practically has another quarter meter on top of that. Satisfied that the noodle length, on the whole, was indeed much longer than your average noodle, P.K. set about actually eating his food instead of playing with it. Measuring it. Whatever.

▼ Long, long noodles.

So how do those extra-long noodles taste?

▼ “No better or worse than their regular noodles. Just normal.”

These extra-long normal-tasting noodles will retail for 193 yen (US$1.83) when they go on sale on February 9. If you prefer noodles that are extra-thick as well as extra-long, how about taking a look at this incredibly dense single udon noodle?

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