9 Store-Bought Soups For Fall, Ranked From Worst To Best

The warmest days of the year quickly get behind us as summer fades into fall — and with the change in weather comes a change in culinary preferences. After all, the cooling foods of summer aren't quite a match for evenings when you already feel chilly. One of the best fall foods to look forward to? Warm, creamy, thick soups. Nothing is quite better on a cool fall evening than a soup that warms you from the inside out. Unfortunately, homemade soups can take a lot of time and effort to make, which isn't always plausible with your hectic daily schedule. That's where store-bought soups come in.

There are numerous grocery store soup options for fall, but they aren't equally delicious. Discovering which options are mouthwatering, which are mediocre, and which are downright gross can feel like a frustrating process — but it doesn't have to be. I was given the opportunity to try eight store-bought soups for fall and rank them from worst to best, so you know exactly which options are worth grabbing at your next grocery store visit. Each soup was ranked solely on taste, without alterations, and I relied heavily on my food industry experience to make my determinations.

Somewhere near the top of this ranking is your new favorite fall soup. Ready to discover which that is? Let's get into it.

I'm a big fan of mushrooms, and I've always really enjoyed traditional "cream of mushroom" options, so I was excited to give this a try. Unfortunately, Amy's Soups Mushroom Bisque with Porcini left me hugely disappointed.

Opening the can, I was greeted by a strange smell. It was largely the earthy savoriness of mushrooms, but it almost smelled like the soup had gone bad — not a pleasant experience, by any means. If it weren't for the taste test, I wouldn't have eaten this because I so highly value the smell of my foods, but I did push on here. Unfortunately, I also found the texture and taste to be lacking. Texturally, it had an oddly lumpy, slightly slimy mouthfeel that's not enjoyable. As for the taste, well, it tasted largely like mushrooms with no other real defining flavors. It also lacked seasoning and could definitely use a generous sprinkling of salt with a bit of cracked black pepper.

Overall, I found this soup to be disappointing and think you'd be better off making a homemade Mushroom Cheddar Soup or similar if you have a craving for mushroom soup. I won't be purchasing again and don't recommend it.

I adore a good potato soup, so this was another option I was looking forward to trying. But, yet again, it was also something that left me disappointed. In fact, it was challenging to decide which was best (or worst) between this and our bottom option. Ultimately, I hated the Organic Imagine Potato Leek Creamy Soup just slightly less than the mushroom bisque, so it pulled into seventh place instead of dead last.

My primary issues with this soup boil down to two things: texture and seasoning (or lack thereof). Despite having the word "creamy" in the name, this soup feels a little gritty, like someone had sprinkled just a pinch of beach sand into my bowl. Since nobody wants to feel like they're eating sand, I obviously found this off-putting. The overall flavor profile wasn't horrible, but it lacks any real seasoning, which made it a bland experience. With some salt and pepper at a minimum, this might have been okay.

Skip this option in lieu of better ranked soups on this list — I know I won't be eating or buying it again. And, if you have a craving for silky-smooth potato soup, you could easily make it at home. If you were feeling like something a little more hearty, you could even try this slow cooker loaded potato soup recipe without investing too much time.

This is the part of the list where the soups go from "yuck" to "meh." We aren't into the good soups yet by any means, but these next few soups didn't have the same gross factor as the bottom two options. With this Bowl and Basket Beef Pot Roast Soup, I really wanted to like it because my family loves these types of soups and it could have saved me a lot of time cooking supper on some nights. But, I just didn't.

For starters, the meat chunks tasted artificial — a taste that permeated the soup as a result. The vegetables were a little mushy once the soup was heated according to the instructions on the can, which resulted in a textural nightmare. The broth, however, wasn't terrible, despite a small lingering artificial taste. Like our lowest ranking soups, this one could do with a little seasoning.

Personally, I prefer homemade Jager beef soup. But, even if you don't want to make something from scratch, I recommend skipping this option and going with a better ranking soup instead.

Although not quite there, this Progresso Creamy Roasted Chicken Wild Rice Soup was almost good. As there was no lingering artificial flavor, it easily pulled ahead of the beef soup option above. Unlike the options that ranked higher, however, this one didn't have any real "wow" factor, and if I had to choose a single word to describe it, I'd likely go with "bland."

The chicken chunks in this soup don't have the light savoriness I was expecting, but instead taste like nothing, and the broth doesn't have a real defining flavor either — nor does the wild rice. However, the wild rice did add some positive textural interest, so the soup had that going for it. I'm not sure if seasoning would help since a lack of flavor is to blame for this mediocre ranking, but a little salt might help bring the existing flavors to the forefront.

Overall, I won't be purchasing this soup again and I can't recommend it unless you're looking for warmth with no taste. Thankfully, there are countless other chicken soups you could experiment with instead, if that's what you're looking for this fall.

Finally, we start getting into the good soups, and believe me when I say it was about time. This fall canned soup ranking was starting to drag on me because I doubted I'd find anything worth stocking my pantry with here. And, while this wasn't necessarily a stock-worthy option, it definitely provided a glimmer of hope.

The texture here is exactly what I look for in a creamy soup — smooth with a little weight and thickness to it. The combination of sweet potato and butternut squash was nice and balanced, fully reminiscent of all the best flavors of fall, although there is a mild artificial taste to it. I also enjoy that this came in an easy-to-use container so I didn't have to dirty a bowl if I didn't want to (although I did for the sake of pictures). I would have liked to see a little more sweetness here in terms of seasoning.

Overall, this was far from the worst soup I've ever had, but it wasn't the best, either. I probably won't eat it again and don't recommend it solely because there's a very similar, better ranked option on this list.

This was the first soup on the list that earned a recurring place in my kitchen pantry. While I won't be purchasing it all the time, I feel like it's a delicious soup for when I want to experience the best flavors of fall. The only reason it didn't rank higher was sheer personal preference — I don't have any major complaints.

I was hesitant about the texture of Rao's Slow Simmered Butternut Squash Soup because it looked a little grainy inside of the jar. However, once I poured it out of the jar and cooked it, I discovered that it wasn't so much grainy as it was thick. There is a definitive creaminess I enjoyed, and it's also nicely seasoned while allowing the flavors of the butternut squash to shine through. I also really like that this soup is made with no artificial flavors or preservatives.

I'll definitely be eating this again, and recommend adding it to your fall shopping list if you enjoy creamy soups or squash. I think it would be especially delicious with a few pieces of fresh homemade no-knead sourdough bread.

Cheddar Broccoli is one of my favorite soups, so that may have played into how highly ranked this one was. But, it wasn't just a biased opinion because this soup mix was everything I look for in a fall soup — thick, creamy, hearty, warming, and absolutely delicious. Although it takes slightly longer to prepare than the other soups on this list, I think those few extra minutes are worth it for the results you receive.

The texture was predominantly creamy, but featured small yet noticeable chunks of what I believe to be broccoli and seasonings. A rich cheddar cheese flavor was perfectly balanced by the earthy broccoli, and the whole dish is perfectly seasoned. One thing I really loved is the smell, which permeated my kitchen while I was cooking and made my mouth water.

I will definitely be keeping a bag of this cheddar broccoli soup mix in my pantry for those evenings where I want a warm soup for supper. To make it a more filling meal, I think I may upgrade this with some bacon or hamburger meat and a handful of fresh spinach when I have the time.

There's nothing quite like a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup on a cool fall day. But, if you want a serious upgrade to that combo, this Pacific Foods Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup is exactly what you're looking for. It easily took the top spot for having zero flaws (in my personal opinion) and featuring everything I would yearn for in a fall soup.

This extra smooth and creamy soup featured an elevated sweetness thanks to the addition of the red peppers, with the smallest hint of spice. The tomatoes offered a full-bodied taste and the entire thing was perfectly seasoned in a way that allowed the produce to really shine through. Not only am I a huge fan of this, but so are my children — and since they're such picky eaters, I think that's a boon on its own. Finally, I also liked that this is gluten-free and USDA organic, which makes it a suitable choice for a wide range of people.

I will definitely be keeping this stocked in my pantry for regular eating, especially for quick yet hearty lunches. I highly suggest grabbing yourself a container of this soup because once you try it, there will be no doubts as to why it was ranked in the top spot.

I chose soups for inclusion in this ranking based on their availability to me at my local Shoprite in Vineland, New Jersey. Soups were considered "eligible" if they either contained seasonal fall produce or were creamy, warming, and hearty — or all of the above. Within available options, I aimed to include a wide variety of fall soup types and soup brands, to get the most accurate representation of available options within the parameters. Each soup was eaten exactly as-is, with no alterations or additional seasonings added.

To make my determinations, I relied primarily on more than 15 years of experience in the food industry, during which time I crafted countless scratch soups in fall and other seasons. My experience with rankings at Daily Meal also came into play, during which time I wrote a previous soup article ranking six Aldi soups from worst to best. Although personal preference played a role in this ranking, I aimed to be as unbiased about soup quality as possible.