Tinned vegetable soup
Baxter's Country Garden Soup €1.31
Highs: When this soup spills out of the can it looks too watery by half. It appears nothing like the hale and hearty fare you'd expect, and the vegetables have been so finely diced that they bear almost no relationship to what they once were. Turns out that looks are deceiving and its consistency is to its credit when it stands beside the gloop-fests that are the other soups. It also has a nice texture, no doubt thanks to the 10 different types of vegetable contained within.
Lows: But at what price? This soup is more than 40 cent dearer than the average price of its rivals and it's hard to see why.
Verdict: Nice but dear
Star rating: **
Marks and Spencer Country Vegetable Soup 0.99
Highs: This isn't any old vegetable soup, the tin announces proudly, it's country vegetable soup. This claim is worrying because when soup-makers tart up their branding with homely sounding names, it's often a hint that the product will be unidentifiable slop. Not here though. There's an impressive array of recognisable vegetables crammed into the tin and it is the only soup tested that wasn't a lurid red colour. The potato-thickened texture gives it an almost homemade taste.
Lows: The aftertaste is a little artificial and the pale colour makes it less comforting than a country vegetable soup should be.
Verdict: A little disappointing.
Star rating: **
Tesco Vegetable Soup €0.79
Highs: It is the cheapest soup tested and has a fine selection of vegetables, albeit ones seemingly processed to a state that goes way beyond natural. It also makes a brave stab at cornering the minestrone market with the addition of whitish coloured shapes that bear a passing resemblance to pasta.
Lows: The texture of the soup is horribly viscous and it tastes just a little of tin. There is almost three times as much salt in this soup when compared to some of its competitors and (as we're being so picky) this comes in the only tin without the handy ring-pull that has become de rigeur on all cans of late.
Verdict: Cheap and cheerless.
Star rating: *
Heinz Vegetable Soup €0.89
Highs: This soup tastes like it's been made with the leftover sauce from the company's baked beans plant and, unlikely as it may sound, this turns out to be no bad thing. The soup is strangely comforting, and has a rich, sweet tomato taste. It is just the sort of taste that children would be particularly fond of, and hung-over adults might be tempted by its charms as well. It's cheap too and has the lowest salt content of the soups tested.
Lows: It is very gloopy indeed and most of the vegetables are completely unrecognisable. Also, it might be a little sweet for some tastes.
Verdict: Not bad comfort food.
Star rating: ***
