What’s a grilled cheese sandwich without its best sidekick: a steaming bowl of creamy tomato soup? With so many great boxed brands to choose from, we set out to find the one that gets our INdorsement.
The Contestants:
Trader Joe’s Organic Creamy Tomato Soup
Cost: $0.08/oz.
Appearance and taste: This soup had a lighter orange color but was relatively watery. It had a sweet taste that was polarizing to our group. A few people likened it to Campbell’s tomato soup.
Pacific Organic Creamy Tomato Soup
Cost: $0.12/oz.
Appearance and taste: This soup had a rich, orange color and a true tomato taste. Most of our team really sparked to the flavor of this one. One person even called it “life changing.”
Imagine Organic Creamy Tomato Soup
Cost: $0.12/oz.
Appearance and taste: This soup was much darker than the other two. The appearance was appealing to us, however the taste wasn’t as great as we were hoping. It had a slightly off-putting aftertaste that lingered a little too long.
The Analysis:
Taste:
Our consensus? Pacific Organic Creamy Tomato Soup had the creamy texture and clean tomato flavor perfect for pairing with our grilled cheese sandwiches. Additionally, its packaging trumped the other 2 brands.
Packaging:
The Trader Joe’s package felt very generic and un-designed with its font choice and dark tones. We didn’t find the pinkish hues of the Imagine packaging to work well, and thought the “organic” got lost at the top. We liked Pacific’s color palette and use of fresh tomatoes for flavor cues. The color of the soup also seemed true, unlike the unnatural darkness of the other two.