The 7 Best And 3 Worst Soups To Buy From Costco

Convenience and comfort come in a two-pack at Costco in the rows of refrigerated, ready-to-eat soups. Homemade soup takes time and ingredients (not to mention blood, sweat, and tears), and canned soup is often loaded with sodium or additives. So, Costco's refrigerated options provide a happy medium, offering a warm, hearty lunch on a cold day or dinner on a night when you don't feel like cooking but also don't want canned food. These ready-to-eat soups — which are sold in packs of two plastic tubs from 24 to 32 ounces — make it easy to pack a filling lunch, answer the "what's for dinner" question, and prepare a wholesome meal.

While some of these store-bought soups can be high in sodium and fat, they're often rich in other nutrients, such as protein from meat and vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants from vegetables. It's easy to heat them up for a quick weeknight dinner and save the other container for another meal or two. With few preservatives, they last in the fridge for about a month, but should be eaten within three days of opening. They can, however, also be frozen and saved for later.

Costco typically stocks more than a dozen varieties of heat-and-eat soups, which can be found in the refrigerated deli or pre-made meals section. Within the budget-friendly $9 to $15 price range, 10 flavors were selected to taste and rate to determine the best and worst soups you can buy at Costco.

The 10 flavors considered for our list of best and worst Costco soups were selected based on local availability and price. All prices listed are current at the time of publication at a local Costco. We stuck to options within a $9 to $15 price range for consumer relevancy and interest, meaning some offerings — like Ruprecht's Irish Beef Stew at $23 or the shelf-stable Allen Family Zuppa Toscana at $18 — were left out.

The final ratings were based on the opinions of several tasters, representing a range of demographics. Soups were judged mainly on flavor and texture, but other factors that influenced the ratings included quality of ingredients, nutrition, and packaging. There were some difficult choices. One soup in particular was difficult to place on the list because it was either a taster's favorite soup or least favorite. Some soups didn't clearly fit the "best" or "worst" label, so tasters focused on specific characteristics to tip the balance.

In many coastal communities where seafood is key to the culture, clam chowder is simply a part of their identity. Each region specializes in a different type of chowder, with uniquely different flavors and ingredients. That said, for those in landlocked states, store-bought New England-style clam chowder is about the only option available. However, that's not a problem as long as it's Ivar's Soup Company Clam Chowder with bacon.

Simply put, this clam chowder is delicious. It isn't briny, fishy, or bland, but surprisingly sweet, rich, and creamy. There are tender clams in every spoonful — they are the star of this soup — but there are occasional bits of flavorful bacon, potatoes, celery, and onion, too. At my local Costco, the two-pack of 24-ounce tubs cost $12, which could supply you with tasty lunches for a week or help you impress 10 dinner guests. There are about 50 ingredients listed on the label, so this may not be considered clean eating, but it is delicious and satisfying. Cream, butter, and coconut oil make the soup generously rich and creamy, elevating it from a cozy dinner on a cold night to something luxurious and special. Take the chowder to the next level by serving it in a crusty sourdough bread bowl or an onion bowl for soup.

One note: Most of the tasters who gave the clam chowder rave reviews live in a landlocked state, potentially overselling its qualities and skewing the final rating. Nevertheless, we stand by the decision because it's a really delicious soup!

Eatiful's Organic Butternut Squash Soup with sweet potatoes is the only shelf-stable soup on this list, but that's not why it fell short in comparison. No, the problem is that this doesn't seem like soup. It is not creamy, savory, or satisfying. Instead, it comes across as thin in both consistency and flavor.

The ingredients are butternut squash puree, water, sweet potato puree, coconut cream, sea salt, and powdered seasonings of ginger, onion, and garlic. Nevertheless, the soup doesn't have any nutty, sweet taste from butternut squash, no richness from coconut cream, and the powdered seasonings appear to be dormant. Unfortunately, the sweet potatoes — which are a promising perfect partner for the squash — only show up by name and are difficult to distinguish in the actual soup. They did nothing to enrich its flavor or consistency. To prevent this pureed soup from tasting like bland, watered-down baby food, add a handful of croutons, pepitas, or bacon. It most likely will take even more creative toppings to make this soup less boring, however.

Eatiful's packaging was another disappointment. The soup comes in a box of five easy-to-open pouches. Each holds more than one serving but fewer than two, so you're left to decide whether to save the small leftover amount for later or throw it away, because no one will want an extra-large serving of this bland soup.

In our opinion, Heritage Specialty Foods — the family-owned company behind this soup — has succeeded in crafting lasagna in soup form. Without a doubt, this recipe just works. The soup really does have all the flavor, texture, warmth, and comfort of lasagna, with extra sauce to make it soupy. It's enough to inspire some poetic descriptions.

The rich and hearty soup is a symphony of flavorful meat, kettle-cooked tomato, and savory cheese. Beef stock provides a deeply satisfying base for the meaty medley of Italian sausage and ground beef. The rich sauce, steeped in nostalgia and spices, hugs the ruffled ribbons of tender lasagna noodles, while the aromatic vegetables and aged cheeses round out the robust layers of flavors.

Heritage Lasagna Soup is ready-to-eat as is — no add-ins needed. The soup is a satisfying meal to add to your regular dinner rotation and potentially help you save money on groceries. The two-pack at my Costco cost $12.99 for 12 servings.

The Americanized version of zuppa toscana is widely considered the best soup on Olive Garden's menu, but Ivar's ready-to-eat refrigerated offering of the same name was one of the worst soups found on Costco's shelves. The store-bought soup has a creamier base and smaller pieces of vegetables, but is less texturally interesting and flavorful than the restaurant's version. That's not the reason Ivar's Rustic Zuppa Toscana made the list of Costco's worst soups, however.

The ingredient that hijacks the meal is the white pepper lurking invisibly in the creamy sauce like a tastebud assassin. Its obnoxiously spicy punch overshadows every other ingredient and then lingers for a good 10 minutes after you've swallowed. The diced potatoes, spinach, carrots, celery, and onions are no match for the aggressive pepper. With no notable individual flavors, they are just there to provide some tender textures. That is, except for the spinach, which registers as slimy amid the other ingredients.

The sausage crumbles give the soup a meaty flavor and a flash of sharp, spicy heat, but provide only a temporary distraction from the mysterious, underlying bitterness. Ivar's Rustic Zuppa Toscana comes in a two-pack of 24-ounce containers. It is regularly priced at $11.49 but was purchased on sale for $9.29, but that's no consolation for having to throw most of it away.

A lot is going on in this Kirkland Signature Chicken Tortilla Soup. Swimming in the savory tomato broth are soft carrots and corn kernels — the kind that have a nice pop when you bite into them. The fire-roasted tomatoes and poblano peppers give the soup a warm and spicy kick. The soup has chicken in it, but it doesn't feel too meaty because it's so finely shredded. Still, it's surprisingly high in protein with 12 grams per 1-cup serving.

The consensus in online forums is that this tortilla soup is a convenient starting point to getting a good meal on the table quickly. It can be customized with add-ins like rice, beans, avocado, and rotisserie chicken. At the economical price of $10 for 64 ounces, it makes for a cheap and quick meal. Traditionally, corn chips are used to thicken and flavor tortilla soup. While they are listed as an ingredient on the packaging, they are difficult to see or taste — although they are probably responsible for the broth's dark color and thick texture. Adding your own corn chips improves the flavor and texture, as do other crunchy toppings that can upgrade soup.

Ivar's Soup Company Loaded Baked Potato Soup is currently sold in two 24-ounce tubs for $10.39 at my Costco location. It is thick and creamy and not overly rich or salty. If it were sold as a potato chowder, it might not have ended up on the "worst" side of this list. But as a loaded baked potato soup, it is disappointing. Baked potatoes appear on many restaurant chain menus, and a loaded one should be a delightful sensory experience — fluffy potato, rich butter, crunchy bacon, bright chives, tangy sour cream, and gooey cheese. Unfortunately, this soup falls short in every sense.

The potato is the dominant ingredient, showing up in small chunks and as the base puree, and while there is plenty of potato flavor, there is no hint of rich butter or sour cream. Often, the cheese is the highlight of a loaded potato, but in this soup, the cheese is invisible. Melted into the white void, the cheese did not contribute either a rich flavor or an indulgent texture. And the chives seem to have only one job: They add flecks of color to the creamy white soup without engaging with the taste buds at all. There is a definite bacon flavor, but it's uncured or natural bacon. This has fewer preservatives but lacks the smokiness and crispy crunch of the type usually crumbled onto a loaded potato.

You won't see chunks of chicken and vegetables this big in any other chicken noodle soup. Costco employees harvest the moist, flavorful meat from the warehouse's rotisserie chickens, add large pieces of freshly chopped vegetables, and simmer in a savory broth with pleasantly thick and chewy noodles. Kirkland Signature's Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup is basically homemade goodness crafted in Costco's kitchen.

Low-calorie, low-fat, and high-protein with plenty of vitamin-rich vegetables, this soup is great for lunch or dinner with a sandwich or salad, or as a natural cold remedy. Psychologically, it's warm and comforting. Physically, chicken noodle soup is the perfect sick-day food, both gentle on the stomach and full of health benefits. The batch we tasted was satisfyingly savory but quite heavy-handed with the black pepper. Costco regulars say the seasoning and ingredients can be inconsistent from batch to batch, but that shouldn't be a deal-breaker.

You'll find this Kirkland Signature soup on the shelf with Costco's pre-made meals, not by the other ready-to-eat soups. It was priced at $3.99 per pound when I picked it up and comes in a large square tub that holds about six to eight servings.

No matter the history behind pairing grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup, the duo is ingrained in our collective memory. It has been a popular childhood comfort food for over 100 years and is often associated with times we felt emotionally safe and taken care of. We turn to these familiar foods when we feel sick, stressed out, or just sad because they release soothing hormones and bring to mind happy memories.

Kirkland Brand Tomato Basil Soup may be more sophisticated than the canned soups of your youth and most likely less salty as well. Although it doesn't taste low-sodium, one serving contains only about 20% of the daily recommended amount of salt — significantly less than other Costco soups. It is flavorfully rich and tangy, with bright, acidic tomatoes and a prominent herbaceousness from the basil. Thin, but full of complex flavor, the soup gifts the eater with the occasional soft morsel of tomato for something to chew on. 

The fact that it was thin, to the point of being watery, wasn't enough to keep this tomato basil off the "best" side of our list. It is the ideal kind of soup that soaks into a sourdough bread bowl or serves as a dip for a sandwich. Grilled cheese is the obvious choice for a combo, but a more grown-up palate might appreciate how well tomato soup pairs with tuna fish sandwiches. This would also be a great soup to turn into an irresistible creamy dip.

Bursting with color and flavor from zucchini, carrots, onions, spinach, corn, and barley, Cedar Lane's Organic Chopped Vegetable and Barley Soup tastes bright and fresh even though it comes in a plastic tub. Every spoonful is full of vegetables and pearled barley grains, which have soaked up the savory tomato broth. Though there is a touch of basil, oregano, and cayenne pepper, the broth's zingy, vibrant taste can mostly be attributed to the vine-ripened, organic tomatoes, tomato juice, and citric acid.

The soup is low-calorie, low-fat, dairy-free, and vegetarian. It's also low-sodium compared to other heat-and-eat soups sold at Costco. However, this organic vegetable soup is surprisingly low in fiber and nutrients. The barley used is pearled, meaning the hard outer layers are removed to make the grain soft and chewy. Unfortunately, those layers contain most of the fiber and nutrients, so pearled barley doesn't even qualify as a whole grain.

Luckily, this soup tastes so good and is so budget-friendly that it makes up for its limited nutritional range. The two-pack was $9.29 at my local Costco, and it yields 16 servings. That means you can enjoy a flavorful 70-calorie bowl of soup for only 58 cents.

Panera's Broccoli Cheddar Soup, sold in plastic tubs in Costco's refrigerated section, is not the same recipe as the soup served in Panera restaurants because it includes additional preservatives. That said, it's still a fan favorite. There's something so satisfying about this soup. It's not the broccoli because, let's be honest, that's not really anyone's favorite veggie. It's also not the colorful contrast of the sunny yellow soup speckled with orange carrots and green broccoli florets, or its tantalizing scent. What keeps you coming back for more is the creamy, satisfyingly smooth consistency swirled with rich, cheesy flavor. The secret behind the velvety texture is processed cheese, which isn't explicitly listed on the packaging, but is no surprise since it's what many Panera Broccoli Cheddar copycat recipes call for.

Broccoli is a natural pair for the cheesy flavor and provides a variety of textures in manageable bite-sized pieces, bulking up the soup into a heartier meal. Nutritionally, the broccoli adds some fiber, vitamins, and nutrients, but this is more of a rich soup with the cream and cheese front and center.  Panera's Broccoli Cheddar Soup contains almost half the daily recommended amount of both saturated fat and sodium (in part due to the cheese and heavy cream) and 6 grams of sugar. However, it doesn't taste sweet or overly salty.