Some like it hot and as we found out this week, that “some” includes Campbell’s. Yes, Campbell’s of chicken noodle soup fame. So if you are feeling both ill and daring at the same time, or you simply want to be able to open a can of soup just to feel something, you now have a solution for all your problems. Three new flavors of Campbell’s spicy soup are heading to stores as we speak, along with two spicy broths from Swanson and one revamped spicy Campbell’s recipe. So buckle your soup bowls, keep your hands and vehicles inside your feet at all times, and get ready to serendipitously slurp some soupy spice—or at least, read an article about the speecy-spicy soups now available for slurping.
Are we talking about spicy chicken noodle soup here or something else altogether? Also, how spicy is spicy when it is an over 100-year-old soup company founded by white people in New Jersey?
Turns out, yes, Spicy Chicken Noodle did make the cut. The new array of spicy Campbell’s soups also includes Spicy Tomato, which will include “cayenne pepper sauce and chili pepper extract for medium heat”; Spicy Buffalo-Style Cream of Chicken, which will also feature Cayenne pepper sauce; and Spicy Nacho Cheese, which is technically just a new recipe not a new product (now it will have both red and jalapeño peppers). As for the Swanson broth flavors, they’ve released Spicy Chicken Broth and Spicy Beef Broth.
This answers one of my questions and leaves me with about ten more. For instance, why does Spicy Tomato soup sound like one of the best things ever? Why does Spicy Nacho Cheese soup sound like it could just be used as (and I’m just spitballing here) a very dank queso? Not mad about Spicy Buffalo-Style Cream of Chicken either. The only one that stumps me is the Spicy Chicken Noodle. I need to know what kind of spice. I need to know if there is extra flavor added or if it is just good ol’ chicken noodle plus capsaicin. According to Instagram snack guru Markie Devo, Campbell’s says the soup will be infused with pepper flavor rather than just heat, so there’s a chance we get some nuance and fruitiness along with the spice.
This still leaves the questions of the day: Just how spicy will these new spicy Campbell’s soups be? I mean, Campbell’s is still a soup company, the wet (albeit, delicious) blankets of the culinary world, but with Cayenne in the mix in many of these new soups, we’re holding out hope for some real burn. I personally can’t wait to get sick and then absolutely hose out my sinuses with some Spicy Chicken Noodle, so hopefully Campbell’s delivers on that one. For the record, I hope they can.
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!