Tomato soup: Campbell’s comes out on top
By JENNIFER VOGELSONG, Daily Record/Sunday News
When the weather turns cold, cravings for comfort foods kick in. You find yourself yearning for dishes that warm both the mind and belly.
A big bowl of soup is one of the best ways to turn up the temperature and take you back to simpler times. And nothing says classic like Campbell’s tomato soup. Well, at least according to four members of the York Daily Record/Sunday News’ Teen Takeover staff.
After a blind sampling of five mainstream brands, the can of Campbell’s condensed tomato soup came out on top. They praised its creamy texture and bold flavor. Still, they weren’t quite ready to sing in a Campbell’s commercial.
Check out the teens’ comments — along with reviews of competing brands — in this month’s taste test. Then head to your local supermarket and stock up for the chilly days ahead.
Send your favorite crumbled crackers swimming in its scarlet pool, or use for dunking grilled-cheese sandwiches.
However you decide to enjoy it, just don’t forget to add water (or milk).
Weis
Price: 59 cents
Serving size: ½ cup
Servings per container: About 2.5
Nutritional information: 90 calories, 2 grams fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 760 mg sodium, 10 grams sugar, 17 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams protein
Maria Stayer, York Suburban Senior High School: 4. This tastes and smells like Spaghetti Os. It has a good consistency — not too runny or too thick.
Jake Mokris, home-schooled: 3. It’s soup. It tastes tangy and tomato-ey, but not amazing. It’s almost as boring as its solid red color. You can see the extremely tiny bits of tomato, which might be unsettling to some.
Katherine Hartman, Dallastown Area High School: 5. This tastes like Spaghetti Os (minus the Os). It has a fairly thin consistency, but I like that in my tomato soup. The flavor is very sweet, but not sickeningly so. All in all, this is some top-notch tomato soup.
Lily Kotansky, Susquehannock High School: 3. This tastes . . . fragile? In the sense that the soup is runny. I taste water as well as tomato. Watch out for random clots of tomato.
Average rating: 3.75.
Harvest Blends
Price: 40 cents
Serving size: ½ cup
Servings per container: About 2.5
Nutritional information: 70 calories, 1 gram fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 690 mg sodium, 7 grams sugar, 16 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram protein
Maria Stayer, York Suburban Senior High School: 2. This one smells like Play-Doh and is very salty. It is runnier than the first and lacks a true tomato taste.
Jake Mokris, home-schooled: 1. It just doesn’t smell right and tastes too bitter. I feel like playing with it and stirring it to delay eating it for as long as possible.
Katherine Hartman, Dallastown Area High School: 2. This soup is more of an orange color than the first. It also looks a little paler and the taste is not very sweet. Indeed, the taste has the potency of a Saltine. The tomato taste is reminiscent of tomato sauce — not what I would expect from a soup.
Lily Kotansky, Susquehannock High School: 4. I said “ooh� as this soup poured down my throat. I love its literal mixing pot of spicy flavors. It reminds me of homemade soup.
Average rating: 2.25.
Great Value
Price: 48 cents
Serving size: ½ cup
Servings per container: About 2.5
Nutritional information: 90 calories, 0.5 gram fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 630 mg sodium, 11 grams sugar, 19 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams protein
Maria Stayer, York Suburban Senior High School: 1. Eating this soup is like gulping a mouthful of salty sea water. Because it is so salty, it is hard to eat a lot of it. It has a dull, dark orange color and leaves a bad aftertaste.
Jake Mokris, home-schooled: 3.5. I feel more comfortable eating this soup. The tomato flavor has just the right strength and the soup is a little creamy.
Katherine Hartman, Dallastown Area High School: 2. This soup, too, is orange, but less bright than the second one. Its consistency appears to be medium. This brand tastes like stewed tomatoes. That’s a little too close to an actual tomato taste if you ask me. The flavor is not very strong.
Lily Kotansky, Susquehannock High School: 2. This one feels heavy as I dip my spoon into the clay-orange liquid. The taste is lacking. I feel cheated.
Average rating: 2.125.
Campbell’s
Price: 85 cents
Serving size: ½ cup
Servings per container: About 2.5
Nutritional information: 90 calories, 0 grams fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 710 mg sodium, 12 grams sugar, 20 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams protein
Maria Stayer, York Suburban Senior High School: 3. This one is a bit spicy and overwhelms my taste buds. After eating this, I feel like I need a drink. I wouldn’t recommend eating a lot of this at one time. After the first spoonful, the taste is not as bad.
Jake Mokris, home-schooled: 4. This is pretty good. It’s creamy and substantial, not liquidy. It doesn’t make me want to sing about it for a soup commercial, though.
Katherine Hartman, Dallastown Area High School: 5. This one seems comparatively thick and smells like it will have a sweeter, bolder flavor than the others. As I eat it, my suspicions are confirmed. Its taste is very similar to the first. As a matter of fact, I cannot really distinguish between the two. If anything, this one is slightly more acidic than the first, with a bit of a tongue-puckering effect.
Lily Kotansky, Susquehannock High School: 4. To truly smell this soup, I had to put my nose down to the bowl. The smell? Can anyone say pool-house locker room? Surprisingly, the taste has less to do with pools. I love the creamy texture.
Average rating: 4.
Giant
Price: 65 cents
Serving size: ½ cup
Servings per container: About 2.5
Nutritional information: 90 calories, 0.5 gram fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 630 mg sodium, 11 grams sugar, 19 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams protein
Maria Stayer, York Suburban Senior High School: 3. This one is neither spicy nor salty, but it lacks a strong tomato taste. You need crackers or grilled cheese to go with it. Because it doesn’t have a strong taste, you can eat a lot of it.
Jake Mokris, home-schooled: 1. This is red water. If it weren’t a little orange-ish, it would remind me of blood. Nasty.
Katherine Hartman, Dallastown Area High School: 2. The color of this soup is darker. It seems a little runny, but not unappetizingly watery. It tastes bland and has an unpleasant aftertaste. Perhaps it has assumed the flavor of the plastic container in which it was heated.
Lily Kotansky, Susquehannock High School: 3. Ummm . . . did I just taste soup? Tomato soup? Honestly, my taste buds are confused. You can get tired of this one easily. I think I taste other vegetables in there, too. Carrots?
Average rating: 2.25.
