First Batch
Most brands ask what you thought. We ask before it's decided.
First Batch is a small panel that gets unreleased NOMI products in the mail before anyone else and votes on what ships. Salt, texture, heat, which version goes into production — and, as we move past ramen, what we make at all. Free to join, free product, and the vote actually moves the formula.
How it works
Four rounds a year. Roughly twenty minutes of your time each round.
You get it before anyone
Unreleased products and reformulations ship to your door in plain packaging — sometimes two versions of the same thing with nothing but A and B on the lid.
You eat it like you'd eat lunch
Not a tasting-room exercise. At your desk, after training, at 11pm. That's the condition the product actually has to survive.
You score it and say why
One short form. Taste, texture, saltiness, would-you-buy at the real price, and a free-text box we read every word of.
The votes decide
We publish the split back to the panel — including the rounds where the panel picks the version we didn't want.
Why we bother
The one thing every honest food startup gets wrong first is texture. The brands that fixed it fast are the ones that had a panel telling them the truth before the run was printed. The ones that didn't spent two years apologising in their reviews.
We would rather find out from forty people who signed up for it than from four hundred who paid for it.
What we ask of you
- Actually eat what we send, within two weeks
- Fill in the form even when your answer is "this one's bad"
- Don't post photos of unreleased product until we say it's out
- That's it. No posting requirement, no purchase, ever.
What the panel gets a say in
These are live questions, not settled ones. If we ever stop losing votes, you'll know the panel stopped being real.
Salt and seasoning
Every milligram of sodium we take out costs punch, and the panel decides where that trade sits. The industry cup runs near 1,500mg; we're under 700 and want to stay there without it tasting like it.
Texture
On ramen that's gauge, wave and how long the bite holds. On whatever comes next it'll be something else. Either way it's the thing you only catch by eating it at minute eight, not minute three.
What we make next
Which flavor goes into the next run — and which category we go into after ramen. The panel sees those options before the market does, and the one that loses doesn't get made.
Join
The panel is capped so every response gets read. If it's full when you apply we'll hold your spot for the next round.
One email a round, nothing else. If you'd rather earn on what you post than vote on what ships, the Field Team is the other door — plenty of people do both.
