We Ranked Packet Soups From Liquid Sadness To Liquid Gold

As winter continues to rage on and more specifically to me, Sydney faces nonstop rain and grim weather, there’s no better mood-lifter than a bowl of soup.

And while we would all like to make our soups from scratch, not all of us have the time or the cooking talent. This means packet and Cup-A-Soups are the next best thing and if you’re anything like me, you keep your pantry stocked with a few varieties at all times for a cheeky arvo snack to warm your winter belly.

Growing up, there wasn’t that many varieties of packet soup: it was tomato, chicken/noodle, pea/ham, vegetable, and not much else. But these days, the soup sky is the limit. We decided to round up some of most popular flavours for the ultimate soup ranking.

Soup preference is a deeply personal decision, so please let us know in the Facebook comments whether you agree or (more likely) disagree.

We ranked iconic flavours of packet soups:

12. Pea & Ham

If I had to have a spoonful of pea and ham soup to survive an apocalypse, I’d choose death. First thing’s first, peas are the worst vegetable. They are mushy, have a weird flavour, and are just a waste of space. Then we add ham in the mix, but not roasted ham off the bone like your mum makes at Christmas — nope, we’re taking smoky ham flavouring that makes me want to vom.

Disguuustang!

11. Pumpkin

Pumpkin soup is delicious, but only when it’s made from fresh pumpkin. Pumpkin soup should NEVER come from a packet. It just doesn’t taste like anything that resembles pumpkin. It’s a scam! We have all been hoodwinked, bamboozled, lead astray!

10. Minestrone

Same goes for minestrone! Without the fresh vegetables bobbing around in this soup, it’s just a bit sad. Freeze dried vegetables have never and will never taste as good as the real thing. I would recommend a little #lifehack of adding a cup of frozen veggies to this mix to make it at least edible. But who has the time!!

9. Vegetable

Same soup, different day. This is basically vegetable stock. Add some frozen veggies or you’re just sipping on liquid sadness.

8. Creamy Mushroom

Yuck. I will admit my bias here: I don’t like creamy soups unless they’re chicken flavoured. Therefore, this one does NOTHING for me, and without fresh mushrooms, this tastes more like mushroom gravy which we all know belongs slathered on a chicken schnitty.

7. Potato & Leek

OK, we have arrived at flavours that are decent. This soup tastes much better than it should. As someone typically against vegetable soups from packets, somehow this still tastes okay. I think the garlic croutons take it to another level.

6. Laksa

You can’t go wrong with laksa and even this packet version packs a punch. Sure, you won’t get the depth of flavour you might from a restaurant version, but I’d still happily eat this than a bowl of vegetable stock.

5. Chicken & Corn

If you want to be transported back to a retro Chinese restaurant from your youth, you can’t go past chicken and corn soup. It’s a warm hug of nostalgia, plus the noodles give the soup some extra heartiness.

4. Creamy Chicken with Croutons

This soup slaps. Creamy chicken? Yay. Croutons for crunch? Yay. It’s all groovy.

3. French Onion

This ranking ain’t no basic ranking, as I am a woman who appreciates the culture and history… of soup.

French onion soup is a classic for good reason: it’s tasty and layered with onion, garlic, and thyme. Bonus points as french onion soup mix can be turned into french onion dip — a God tier dip imho.

2. Tomato

I know, I know. I’ve spent most of this article arguing that vegetables should not be made into instant soup, but I’m ready to throw that whole theory away for tomato soup. I’m not a perfect person, there’s many things I wish I didn’t do.

For some reason, packet tomato soup just works. It almost tastes like tomato sauce, but it’s sweet, and super comforting. When paired with a crusty white roll, you can’t get much better.

1. Chicken Noodle

The perfect packet soup DOES exist. Chicken and noodles are a match made in soupy heaven. As if you’re reaching for any other soup variety when you’re sick at home, or just pretending you’re sick at home and wanting to commit to that character.

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP SUPREMACY.