Saw "You Can See Everything" last night. Most people are convinced Holmes is a master manipulator, and maybe she is, but after watching the "Who's on First" scene I wonder if she simply doesn't have much going on upstairs/ lacks common sense. She also seemed to read off a sheet when describing to Nathan Fielder what "the device can do." Shouldn't she know that by heart? The documentary had me questioning the role of all the various "handlers" in her life as we seem to witness with Billy, but at the same time, I was aware that everyone in the documentary, including the audience, was being manipulated while also playing the role of the manipulator. Very very interesting look at the things humans are capable of.

What are other ramen doing? Their "less sodium" versions somehow have MORE sodium than our CORE, full sodium versions, gram for gram. Meanwhile, our lower sodium ramen is the lowest sodium ramen in the world, gram for gram: Only ~470mg for the whole packet. Meanwhile, they split their serving size into 2 for some reason(?), while ours is a single serving, a big, delicious bowl piled with noodles, and a rich, savory broth that you can drink every drop of. And of course, with all the protein, vitamins, & fiber that we're known for. Here’s how we compare with two different competitors: Vite v3.2 Lower Sodium: Food in the packet: 129–135g Sodium in the whole packet: 470mg Competitor comparison: Food in the packet: 60g — Competitor A Sodium in the whole packet: 1,120mg — Competitor B That’s MORE THAN TWICE the food compared with Competitor A's less sodium version. And 58% LESS sodium per whole packet compared with Competitor B's Less sodium version. And gram for gram? Our Lower Sodium ramen has over 72% less sodium than Competitor B’s “less sodium” ramen. And that extra food means more noodles to slurp, more comfort to enjoy, more of that warm, happy feeling of a meal that you can look forward to without thinking you're gonna upset the doctor again. We’ve brought everything we’ve learned about flavor into these bowls, with our new Umami Amp system giving the broth even more savory deliciousness. You can get all four core flavors in Lower Sodium: Garlic Pork Tonkotsu Roasted Soy Sauce Chicken Vegan White Miso Woodland Umami Mushroom. These are being ordered FAST, so if you want to get your place in line for Batch 7, then pre-order today! PREORDER V3.2 LOWER SODIUM → viteramen.com/collections/vi…

If MSG is so good, why is there no MSG 2?

Vite Ramen v3.2 Full Patch Notes V3.2 is the Umami Amp Patch, focused on flavor, as well as untangling the whole... sodium thing. This also makes it so that Vite Ramen now has the lowest sodium, full broth ramen out there with our new Lower Sodium line! It goes live on October 16 as Batch 7, and ships December to January. It's the biggest flavor update we've done in two years, and I’d say it’s 40% better(?)(its pure vibe number i’m ngl) than the current v3.1 Let’s also talk about prices, because as you might know, prices have been ROCKETING UP these past few years... BUT. When doing R&D for Vite Ramen v3.2, we also took into account all of that. I’m proud to announce that v3.2 is: - Tastier - Simpler in supply chain(fewer delays!) - The same price as before It also comes in two editions for the first time. v3.2 Core is flavormaxing without worrying about sodium. v3.2 Lower Sodium is locked at ~470mg, or 20% DV sodium, while still absolutely delicious and chock full of umami. This was made possible via our new Vite Umami Amp system, and both are available on October 16th for preorders! What's Changed? NEW: Two editions, Core and Lower Sodium - Garlic Pork Tonkotsu, Roasted Soy Sauce Chicken, Vegan White Miso and Woodland Umami Mushroom each come in both - Core is as salty as it needs to be, much like your teammates - Lower Sodium is ~470mg per bowl(ish, give or take 10mg), ~20% DV - Even LOWER than the original v1.0 Vite Ramen - Even before you count the 100mg reduction in total DV the FDA did - Which seriously what was the point in reducing DV by only 100mg - So instead of one recipe stuck in the middle, each side gets its own REMOVED: Potassium chloride - Originally added to increase perception of saltiness - Normal version is more bitter than redditors and more metallic than Worlds chat - We had a fancy version that was less salty and less bitter - Fancy version graduated - By graduated we mean-- - Instead of imitating salt we now add more umami depth instead - (you can get the same umami system with Vite Umami Amp btw) UPDATE: New Vite Umami Amp system - Like if Lucio, Miks, Sona, all worked together on umami - Cleaner, louder savory - I wrote more about this in another blog entry. UPDATE: Simpler recipes, simpler supply chain - Michelin Star cooking overcomplicated things sometimes - Too many cooks in the kitchen - Comfort food needs directness & simplicity - Actually MORE flavorful by simplifying - Less for your brain to think about - Core recipes went from 92 total seasonings & spices to 70 across all flavors - Fewer ingredients that can hold up the supply chain - Means PRICE IS THE SAME - Costs HAVE RISEN a ton - Trying to keep price the same for you through skill UPDATE: Garlic Pork Tonkotsu v3.2 - New tastier, meatier pork stock - Removed some yeast extracts in favor of Umami Amp system - Just good ‘ol straightforward even tastier tonkotsu ramen UPDATE: Roasted Soy Sauce Chicken v3.2 - Rebuilt the base to focus on chicken - Removed some soy sauce for chicken to lead the dance in your mouth - Removed some yeast extracts in favor of Umami Amp system - Richer, chicken-y-er broth - Reduced excess herb & spices down by 40% for flavor focus - 25 seasoning ingredients down to 15 UPDATE: Vegan White Miso v3.2 - 67% more real miso - Removed some yeast extracts in favor of Umami Amp system - Reduced excess seasonings - Not too much else changed because if it did the vegan white miso lovers would riot UPDATE: Woodland Umami Mushroom v3.2 - Significantly reduced excess complexity on seasoning and species - Probably the largest reduction of all flavors - Seriously had to squint with your tongue(?) to taste most of it anyway - Removed some yeast extracts in favor of Umami Amp system UPDATE: Packaging - New v3.2 packs - Core is black - Lower Sodium is white - Hard to mix them up that way - I got a whole thing about design on these somewhere later In Conclusion V3.2 is REALLY REALLY TASTY. Now that our Core flavors aren’t held back by a sodium restriction, AND we have a dedicated lower sodium line, AND we’re putting Vite Umami Amp in your hands too... Man, the future’s gonna be real exciting. Come join us to celebrate our 10th anniversary, and the launch of v3.2 on October 16th, 4PM PT, where I'll be streaming and talking about all of it and the stories behind Vite! Meanwhile, there are only TWO DAYS before Batch 6 closes, so if you wanted in this earlier batch, make your preorder now! -Tim, Founder Vite viteramen.com/collections/th…

We're a small business with 0.000001% the sales of Razer and we STILL hire artists and have a full time 3D animator on staff to do this kind of creative work there's absolutely no excuse here we got 5 other characters and more being worked on too like come on

We stole the secrets of umami from the food industry, and we’re giving them to you. Because if MSG was so good, why is there no MSG 2? Tim, founder of Vite here, and we’re giving you the same umami tech that’s going in our v3.2 Vite Ramen to amp up anything you want... And it’s a seasoning with 21.3x the umami of MSG*. How the hell did we manage that? Alright, I’m going to come clean here. The thing is, this science is already very well established, and it’s been a technique we’ve been using for years. It’s all over the food industry, but while making v3.2, I noticed something really weird. For some reason, this couldn’t be bought anywhere. The everyday person couldn’t use it. ...Why was that? First, though, we need to talk about MSG. ...I’ll try to keep it short. Try, being the operative word. MSG stands for monosodium glutamate, and it’s possibly the most misunderstood and contentious ingredient ever made. MSG is, simply, the pure, concentrated flavor of “savoriness,” also known as “umami,” the fifth taste after salty, sweet, bitter, and sour. See, there’s this prevalent, and honestly infuriating belief that goes around that “if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t eat it,” and that’s even BEFORE the huge misinformation campaign around it. But first of all, it’s not that hard to pronounce, and second, we’re demonizing the more honest, straightforward version of things. MSG is the scientific name of this ingredient, and a lot of names get “scary” when you say the precise scientific name. Take something like omega 3, for instance, something most people know as “healthy” and “good for you.” What if, instead, I said, docosahexaenoic acid, or eicosapentaenoic acid? Oooo, scary. But would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? The point of this is that MSG is the exact same glutamate that gives food the rich, savory flavor that we love across food, from parmesan cheese to meat to mushrooms to tomatoes and more. It doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier, unless you inject it directly in yourself, which, y’know, is generally something you shouldn’t be doing with ANYTHING. Oh yeah, did you know that’s actually how those “studies about MSG” came about? If you’re interested, we’ve made videos and written other blog entries about MSG before. Oh, right. I was supposed to keep this shorter... Okay, moving on, MSG is the most concentrated form of direct umami that exists... so, how did we make it 21.3x stronger? Simple. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts, as the saying goes, and in our case with umami... We can stack other ingredients on top of MSG to make it even more powerful. Exponentially so. Meet our good friends inosinate and guanylate. These are two other powerful compounds involved in savory taste, with inosinate being common in things like fish, and guanylate being common in things like mushrooms, and why combining things like fish, mushrooms, plus other umami heavy compounds make a much more delicious dish than if you just ate them separately. It’s also the basis behind dashi, a core component of Japanese cooking, which often combines: Kombu, a seaweed rich in sodium and glutamate Fish, chock full of inosinate Mushrooms, ripe with guanylate Put these together, and they amp up umami to levels far beyond what they can each do alone. In fact, science has even come up with a way to measure this, using something called the Equivalent Umami Concentration(Yamaguchi et al., 1971), which estimates how much plain MSG would be needed to produce the equivalent delicious umami on your tastebuds. And using that calculation, our blend comes out at 21.3x the umami of regular MSG. Yeah. It’s that much better. We’re dethroning the king of flavor. At these levels of concentrated, amplified flavor, there’s another effect that happens. For those who need lower sodium in their lives, this can help you reduce sodium in your diet, while keeping things delicious. While saltiness and umami are different tastes and synergistic in their own right, both help make savory foods satisfying. But umami carries a distinction in being able to replace the salty taste better than any of the other basic tastes on our tastebuds. In a study done by UC Davis in 2020, MSG alone was able to replace 31.3% to 60.9%(depending on food) of sodium from salt while still being enjoyed the same amount. Now imagine what can happen with something that’s 21.3x more potent, gram for gram. Of course, for those who don’t need to watch sodium, you can just use it to amp up your food even more, since it synergizes with salt, too. But even beyond that, we also took a look at other enjoyment enhancing spices, and blended some of those in as well, to create an even more powerful effect. We kept these spices as neutral as possible in the blend, while keeping their effects prominent. That part, though, we can’t tell you about :^) Gotta keep some things secret, ‘cuz I’m pretty sure we’ll find copycats soon, just like always. On our 10th anniversary, October 16th, we’ll be releasing this seasoning to you. We call it: Vite Umami Amp. A little shake, a lot more flavor. An all purpose seasoning built around MSG, inosinate, and guanylate, bringing that amplified umami into your own kitchen. Vegan, and doesn’t contain any of the big 9 allergens! Want to know more about how MSG, inosinate, and guanylate is made? We’ll have more of a deep dive in the page on release! Meanwhile, I’ll also be streaming on twitch.tv/timjzheng on October 16th, 4PM PT, and talking about this, v3.2, and other stories across our 10 years. Come join and say hi! P.S. Batch 6 is still open for a few more days, so if you want in Batch 6 delivery, get your preorders in now before it closes! viteramen.com/collections/th…

Everyone hates sodium, but loves electrolytes. What if I told you they’re the same thing? In fact, 67% of people want higher sodium in our ramen. We’ll pause real quick for everyone to make the hand motions real quick-- Done? Got it out of your system? Cool. Let’s get started then. The original 3 flavors of Vite Ramen were set at the Daily Value of 33%, or roughly 760mg of sodium, to try and balance the sodium content in the context of sodium as a nutrient. Wait, some of you might say, sodium is a nutrient? Isn’t it a “bad thing” to be avoided? Yeah, so... about that. Sodium is actually one of the most important electrolytes in our body. It’s what lets our nerves fire and our muscles contract and move, and it’s actually what your brain uses to send signals. It also holds water in your bloodstream, and so despite what you might hear, if you don’t get ENOUGH sodium, your blood volume can drop, giving symptoms like: - Feeling dizzy or lightheaded when standing up too quickly - Brain fog and trouble concentrating - Fatigue - Headaches - Muscle cramps I’m not going to get too much into the science of that today, since I want to focus on what we’re doing with the sodium. The point here is just that it’s important to get the right amount of sodium, depending on your lifestyle and individual needs, and an “all or nothing” approach fails, well, basically everyone. Health and nutritional needs for each individual person changes depending on each individual’s needs, it turns out. Shocking, I know. So... what do we do when 67% want higher sodium, and 33% want even lower sodium? First, let’s dig a little deeper on what each group of responders had to say. Keep in mind though, that this first set of answers I’m giving you are actually wrong in a sinisterly mundane way, and I’ll explain why later. Across the board, out of 500+ respondents, both the “i want more flavor/higher sodium” and the “i want lower sodium” groups converged in caring about one thing above all: Flavor. After all, if it doesn’t taste good, people don’t want to eat it, even if it’s good for them. Second in line was, predictably, protein, followed by “complete nutrition” and “vitamins”, and then the company’s values. But I personally dislike overly averaged and overly aggregated surveys, because they actually come to the WRONG conclusions. Because when we look at this survey again, but actually split it between those who answered higher sodium versus those who answered lower sodium, we get a completely different picture. See, the higher sodium group valued FLAVOR the most. But the lower sodium group? They actually valued PROTEIN the most. The higher sodium group valued PROTEIN second. The lower sodium group valued Flavor second. And then, importantly, in third place... The higher sodium group valued complete nutrition/vitamins third. And the lower sodium group, defined it as “healthier than normal ramen” as their third place. This is extremely important. I discussed this in a previous blog entry about design, but “healthy” means something different to everyone. Our definition is on the amount of nutrients a food delivers, whether it’s macronutrients like protein, or the amount of vitamins and minerals, but it differs from person to person depending on what their goals and fears are. For the lower sodium group, the primary definition of “healthy” has less to do with the nutrients, and places a much greater emphasis on lower sodium as the definition. In fact, for the lower sodium group, the same complete nutrition/vitamins that was third for the higher sodium group came in at SIXTH most common response. If we took the surveys completely as an average and aggregate, the larger majority of responses from the higher sodium group would’ve completely overridden the responses of the lower sodium group altogether. And we’re not leaving the lower sodium group behind. We’re doing something for the lower sodium group that’s never been done before... even by us. More to come on that later. There’s actually even another sub-group that we found, which all grouped into a specific category too. These were the ones who specifically mentioned neurodivergent traits that made it difficult for them, or for family members/kids to eat healthy. We just mentioned that healthy is different for everyone, and so, what do you think “healthy” meant for this group? For this group by and large, it was simple: I want myself, or my loved one, to get more nutrients. Essentially, both autistic and ADHD people, or those with neurodivergent members in their family, faced a similar conundrum-- It wasn’t having too much of something that was the problem, and it wasn’t “I need to cut this out” that the health food industry usually promotes. It was, simply, that they needed to ADD nutrition into their meals. Which, coincidentally, was kind of why we made Vite Ramen in the first place. I am, after all, both autistic and ADHD(two things that I think become pretty obvious the more stuff about Vite you see), and despite being not a generally picky eater, still have a lot of trouble getting all the nutrition I need in a day. One of the biggest issues for this is sensory issues and flavor issues-- If I don’t like it, then I just... don’t really eat it, and this was something that we saw a lot of in the responses that came our way as well. Among the responses that talked about neurodivergency, autism, ADHD, ARFID and such... 100% of them answered higher sodium, more flavor. Flavor is the major barrier for this group, and we do see population level studies showing that neurodivergent people tend to have significantly more trouble with nutrition than the average population. Our philosophy from the very start was to try and satisfy both-- make a ramen that’s delicious, nutritious, and fast, and try to keep our sodium lower. Our v1.0 launched with 25% DV sodium, back when the FDA daily value was set at 2400mg. The skill I’d gained in Michelin Star kitchens didn’t quite transfer over to food manufacturing, and so our v1.0 wasn’t just poorly received-- in fact, many people despised it. Myself included, actually. I’ve written about that in another blog entry. By v3.0, we’d raised our limit to 33%, and we’d started introducing “unlocked” flavors that weren’t locked on the 33% sodium anymore, and those flavors became increasingly popular. Introducing another Core vegan flavor to the lineup, woodland umami mushroom, which wasn’t at 33% also showed us something incredibly important. When we took a survey for that flavor, it absolutely rocked vegan white miso in popularity and ratings, because the sodium levels, and thus flavor, were higher. (here, I’d like to drop another note that sodium is not just salt, and is present in a ton of different ingredients, from soy sauce to miso to even meat powders, so it’s never as simple as “just remove salt and people can add it,” it’s more like “remove and lower all the other ingredients”) But, still, it was a compromise, and one that got a resounding ehhhhh from everyone. For those who wanted lower sodium, that 33% DV crossed many people’s sodium thresholds, and they no longer could purchase it. Sure, there were the 0% sodium Vite Naked Noods, but many people wanted the flavored full ramen packets. Similarly, the increase in the sodium improved the flavor, but not nearly to the level that the partner flavors we had, which were “unlocked sodium/flavor” had, which always ranked higher than the original, 33% sodium versions. Compromises are like the aggregated results. They kind of don’t please anyone, and can even make some people more upset. So, for upcoming Vite Ramen v3.2... We’re doing something unprecedented. For v3.2, we’re releasing the v3.2 Core line: - Garlic Pork Tonkotsu - Roasted Soy Sauce Chicken - Vegan White Miso - Woodland Umami Mushroom At FULL flavor, full sodium strength, rebalanced and going all in on FLAVOR. In the upcoming patch notes, I’ll discuss exactly what we changed, and why, and how we also ditched having micro-precision on nutrients that no one cared about in order to punch flavor to its absolute maximum, through the roof... Making the absolute tastiest, most ridiculously umami rich ramen ever. Every packet contains MORE real pork, MORE real chicken, MORE real miso, MORE real mushroom, MORE flavor and more deliciousness. Like, it’s not an exaggeration to say it’s probably 50% better in flavor than even v3.1, and people already loved v3.1. But hey, we’re not leaving the lower sodium people behind either, because for v3.2, we’re also releasing... V3.2 Lower Sodium line: - Garlic Pork Tonkotsu Lower Sodium - Roasted Soy Sauce Chicken Lower Sodium - Vegan White Miso Lower Sodium - Woodland Umami Mushroom Lower Sodium Remember the old v1.0 with lower sodium that no one really liked? This ain’t that. We slammed ALL our flavor knowledge and skill into this, rebalancing and tweaking it with the same flavor oomph that we did with the Core line. And even better... The old v1.0 was at 25% DV of 2400mg, meaning 600mg sodium per packet. These new v3.2 Lower Sodium versions are balanced on the new FDA Daily Value of 2300mg. And they’re only 20% DV, or only about 460mg of sodium per packet(give or take 10mg or so) They’re AWESOME in flavor, easily surpassing the old v3.0 in taste, because we brought the same MORE deliciousness to these as well. But even more than that... we’ve stolen the secret of flavor that the food industry has been keeping to themselves, the secret behind v3.2, a powerhouse that has over 20x the amount of MSG... And we’ll be bottling it for you to use on anything you want, too. They’ll all be available in Batch 7, beginning on October 16th, for our 10th anniversary birthday! But meanwhile, we’ll have some minor changes, dubbed v3.1.1, for both Batch 5 and Batch 6. I’ll drop these as a quick note here-- Basically, some of our suppliers have stopped producing some key ingredients that we use, and we’re substituting with other ingredients. This affects primarily the pork in Garlic Pork Tonkotsu, though the new dehydrated pork stock we’re getting is arguably better anyway, and will be what we’ll be using in v3.2 as well. We also had a potassium salt that was bound to rice starch, that helped add the perception of salinity without additional sodium, and that’s also been discontinued. Batch 5 and Batch 6 will no longer carry this ingredient as well, and will receive slight tweaks in other ingredients to make up for it-- it’s largely unnoticeable, though, and both potassium and sodium levels will NOT be changed for v3.1.1. But hey, if you wanted to get in on Batch 6, it’s still open! The estimated delivery date for Batch 6 is November through December, depending on when you get your order in, though we’ll keep you updated based on what’s happening. So, if you want to keep your ramen supply ready and topped up, get in on Batch 6 before it’s over on October 15th! And as always, remember to be kind, and savor life’s little victories. Let us know what you think of the changes! Both full Patch Notes and some new other things will be revealed later too... for instance, if MSG is so good... why hasn’t anyone made an MSG 2? :^) -@TimJZheng , Founder Vite viteramen.com/collections/th…