Campbell’s Chunky Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup

Overview: The Andy Warhol classic, updated for a twenty-first century palate. But would it be hot enough for me?

Label: I’ve always hated the Campbell’s Chunky Soup labels. Why? Because each can contains 515 mL (an amount that went down from 540 mL recently due to “shrinkflation”), but the labels give you the nutritional facts per 1 cup, or 250 mL. So you basically have to take all the information on the label and double it, because who ever eats half a tin of soup?

As for what’s in the tin, you probably know the score. Nothing that’s any good for you, and nearly 75% of your daily sodium in one bowl. It’s not good to get so much of your daily recommended dosages from one source, but when it comes to fast food and ready-to-eat meals you can always bank on the sodium being out of the park. As for the ingredients, “seasoned chili pepper” is given pride of place, with a tempting little pic of said peppers, but there’s a dagger after this (†) that notifies you that what they mean is seasoned chili pepper extract. And yes, it took me a while to find where it said “extract.” You’ll be hard pressed to read where it says that.

Review: I think it was Eric Schlosser’s classic Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal that first made me suspicious of soup in cans. Apparently there are chemical labs in New Jersey that design the taste and colour of all the different types. Because without colour being added this stuff is apparently just a grey sludge across the board. Hot dogs are the same way. They have to be dyed red to look like meat. If you see them being made they’re a sort of creamy beige paste. Not very appetizing, but as the saying goes, nobody wants to see the sausage being made.

I thought I’d give this particular flavour a try because it was “New!” I guess they needed to give the old stand-by some extra kick, because when do you eat regular chicken noodle soup anyway? Only when you’re sick. So perhaps the plan was to try to grow the market for it by spicing it up.

Unfortunately there’s not enough kick. It’s not very hot or spicy. In fact, I wouldn’t describe the taste as spicy at all. Instead, eating it only gave me a really unpleasant burning in the throat that I can’t explain. It doesn’t feel hot hot in your mouth, or even tasty in a spicy way. It’s just more like an acidic burn going down. I didn’t enjoy it at all, and it’s not very hearty either. So the chemists in New Jersey (or wherever) can colour me disappointed.

Price: $1.50 on sale.

Score: 4 / 10

Dangerous Dining