The Aldi Soup That Smelled (And Tasted) Like Cat Food

We all know how soup should smell. Its aroma should suggest heartiness, warmth, abundant ingredients, and the care that goes into a hand-crafted meal. Soup should, essentially, smell like home. It should not, under any circumstances, smell like cat food — even soup with earthy ingredients like borscht (an old school cabbage dish no one makes anymore). And yet, that's exactly what our reviewer encountered when they ranked Aldi's soup offerings from worst to best. The can that offered the strongest eau du Fancy Feast: Chef's Cupboard Chunky Steak and Potato.

It should be noted that while Chef's Cupboard Chunky Steak and Potato smelled like cat food, it did not appeal to the reviewer's cat. Though an initial sniff brought the animal to the bowl, it passed on tasting the soup. Judging from the reviewer's write-up, the cat made the right choice. According to the review, the soup was oddly seasoned, with sour nutmeg among the dominant notes. The look didn't improve matters, either: "The soup was a thin brown color interrupted by ghostly rectangles of potato that were eerily uniform, one of the many reminders that this soup was made at an industrial scale," noted our brave reviewer. 

As for taste, the soup bore a metallic tang, despite the presence of those precision-cut potatoes and bits of mushroom, and that tang carried with it the unmistakable earthiness of the pet food aisle. You may be an adventurous eater who's unafraid of powerful flavors and intense spice, but no one is down for soup that tastes like cat food; no way, no how. Even cats, it seems.

Thought it feels like it should go without saying, not all of Aldi's soups taste unpleasant. Its Deutsche Küche German Bean Soup ranked third on our list, with our reviewer noting that the flavor was both welcoming and real. They also liked the Deutsche Küche Fall Harvest Soup, which came in at number four, writing, "When the November chill hits, I would grab my coziest sweater and can of this soup and snuggle up by a window." It's also worth pointing out that some of the soups featured in this ranking, such as the number two pick, Specially Selected Tomato Parmesan Bisque, appear not to be available anymore.

There isn't much you can do to salvage a soup that tastes like cat food. But there are several hacks that can improve standard store-bought soup. Upgrade your canned soup game with enhancements and additions that are probably in your kitchen right now: cream or milk, chopped vegetables, pasta, spices, and acids can all boost the flavor of canned soup in a number of different ways. You also might find that crunchy toppings, such as roasted chickpeas or fried shallots, are the ingredient your soup has been missing all along. All this to say: Don't settle for bland, unmemorable canned soup. And by all means, don't eat anything that smells or tastes like cat food.