Do you like soup? Us too! In fact, we love soup. Well, I (Emma) love soup. Patrick is mostly neutral on it, I think. Still, we think not enough people get exploratory with soup. There’s a whole world out there beyond chicken noodle. We decided that instead of continuing to constantly lament over how few people eat soup in the Deece every day, we would do something about it. For (basically) a whole week, we tried the soups in the Deece. We were relentless in our mission to learn about the soup, eating it almost every day. Well, eating it more than half of the days. Nobody had gone this far before. We were sort of the Artemis II of soup eaters. We come to you today with our official rankings and, most importantly, a plea with you to get freakier with your soup selections.
4/12 Day Zero
We knew we couldn’t go into this without a plan. If we were gonna do this, we were gonna do it right. We decided all soups would be ranked in five categories. They are as follows:
- Brothiness to creaminess scale
- Sweetness vs. savoriness
- Texture and choice of inclusions
- Did we have a second bite?
- Overall rating out of 10
As we went to sleep that night, our minds wandered with images of all the succulent, sexy—some might even say sensual—bowls of soups we would soon be spiritedly slurping.
4/13 The First Soups
We had Italian Beef and Vegetable soup and Potato Leek soup today. The Italian Beef and Vegetable was quite viscous and sweet. Everything was well cooked, we had second bites. 7/10.
The Potato Leek was a highlight of Soup Week. It was very thick, very creamy and very savory. Couldn’t ask for a better way to celebrate spring. Quintessential. Perchance. 8/10.
4/14 The Second Soups
Tuesday bore Creamy Tomato and Turkey and Rice. Creamy Tomato WOW. A perfect tomato soup. I’ll let our notes speak for themself: “lots of yummy tomatoey tartness. Smooth, I want it to be creamy and smooth and this is that. Basil, which is always nice.” Quite possibly the best soup the Deece has to offer. Quintessential. 10/10.
Turkey and Rice is hardly worth mentioning after Creamy Tomato. Bland, brothy, straightforward. Chicken Noodle but worse in almost every way. Nary a second bite was had. 5/10.
4/15 Chili Wednesday
Clap it up for Chili Wednesday. This is where soup week peaks. It’s only downhill from here man. Two heavy hitters, Vassar Beef Chili and Three Bean Chili. Both are fantastic on their own. Take it away from here, Emma. Thanks, Patrick. I want to let all of you lucky readers in on my little secret. I enjoy a meaty chili, but I sometimes find Vassar Beef Chili to be wayyy too meat dominant for my taste. Not enough fiber. So, I like to do a 60/40 mix of the vegetarian and meat chili options. Try it. Game changer.
Anywho, as certified Chili Wednesday lovers, we were pretty excited for this day, and very grateful for the lack of buffalo chicken/white chicken/tofu involved in the situation. The first soup we tried was the Three Bean. We thought it was perfect; Patrick wisely said that in terms of a vegan Deece soup that’s truly satiating, this is the most delicious option. We felt it was the perfect chili texture, fairly brothy but just viscous enough. It was very savory and smoky, and the different beans as well as the addition of corn brought it to the next level texture and flavor-wise. We both took two bites and agreed that we didn’t miss the meat.
The Vassar Beef Chili is a classic. It was very much not brothy, super thick and meat-focused. It was nice that there were black beans and peppers as well. Still, I (Emma) think Patrick put it best. I (Patrick) said that my chili preference is a little more with the meat not being a dominating component, but I’ll always go in for a second bite of Vassar Beef Chili. 8/10.
4/16 Hot Thursday
Too damn hot to eat soup.
4/17 Cheesy Friday
We returned to the Deece stronger than ever, ready to sample soups with renewed vigor. We knew we had to taste the fuck out of these soups since we missed Thursday. What a terrible day to approach with such gusto. Today’s soup menu was Turkey with Orzo and Broccoli Cheddar. The former was a far superior Chicken Noodle replacement than the Turkey with Rice soup from earlier in the week. Not a high bar to clear, but it was deliciously herb-y and lemon-y (and carrot-y, and orzo-y, and turkey-y). We both had second bites. 7/10.
The latter, while we’re sure was made with love, was Broccoli Cheddar. I (Patrick) am not predisposed to Broccoli Cheddar. I (Emma) liked the soup more than Big P, especially the extra sharp cheddar flavor, but it was certainly too rich to have a full bowl. Beyond being creamy, it was the thickest and most dairy-heavy soup we had all week. I’m sure some people love it. I had a second bite, P-Ricky declined. 4/10.
We followed up the soups by leaving the Deece and getting Saba for the rest of our lunch. 10/10. Better than soup.
4/18 Saturday
Partying hard in Saratoga Springs, New York – No soup to be found there.
4/19 Sunday
Partied too hard to have soup.
We hope this was an informative and entertaining read. It certainly was an informative and entertaining journey for us. Though not without its challenges, we learned a lot about ourselves, about the Deece and about soup. Let this be a lesson for you, to push yourself out of your soup comfort zone. But be careful not to push too far, or else you might end up eating hot soup when it’s 90 degrees out in April. As they say, you don’t taste 500 million soups without making a few enemies.