Homemade soup is always a winter favorite. My go-to soups include cheesy ham and broccoli along with tomato. I also keep a few cans of tomato soup and clam chowder in my pantry for easy meals.
When I spotted jarred corn chowder and jalapeño corn chowder as limited-time specials at Aldi, they looked interesting and I made sure to add one of each to my shopping cart during my weekly Aldi run.
Specially Selected Gourmet Soup Corn Chowder and Specially Selected Gourmet Soup Soup Jalapeño Corn Chowder are Aldi Finds. That means they’re only in stores for a short time. Each store receives one shipment, and after that sells out, they’re gone unless Aldi decides to bring them back later. Aldi does not offer online ordering if these are sold out at your local store.
These cost $3.89 for 24 ounces at the time of publication. With about three 1-cup servings per container, that comes out to about $1.30 per serving.
These are both products of Canada.
If you’re looking out for allergens, these both contain milk.
The jar labels instruct you to simply “heat and serve” and to refrigerate after opening. These should be kept from freezing. I poured these into small saucepans and heated them on my stovetop, which took just a few minutes.
Keep reading for our thoughts on each soup variety.
Specially Selected Corn Chowder:
Corn chowder ready to serve.
This features corn, potatoes, onion, carrot, bell peppers, and bacon in a thick and creamy base. This has a nice mix of ingredients and looked promising, but several of our taste testers did not like how sweet this tastes. Sugar is the third ingredient listed, and this has 13 grams of added sugars per serving (25% DV). Corn is naturally sweet, and I don’t think this needs added sugar, or if you must add sugar, it certainly should not be a whopping 13 grams of it. This is not the first time I’ve tried Aldi soup or chowder that is overly sweet.
One of our taste testers did like this chowder, though, and they went back for seconds. So your mileage may vary.
As for me, if I want corn chowder in the future, I’ll look for a good recipe so I can make it from scratch without all the sugar. In fact, when I Googled corn chowder recipes, most of them don’t contain any added sugars.
Corn Chowder nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
Like many canned soups, this contains some processed ingredients. It contains whipping cream with dextrose, carrageenan, mono– and diglycerides, cellulose gum, and polysorbate 80. It also has various preservatives.
In addition to the sugar, this also has plenty of fat, saturated fat, and sodium. A 1-cup serving has 210 calories, 7 grams of total fat (9% DV), 4.5 grams of saturated fat (21% DV), 820 mg of sodium (36% DV), 33 grams of total carbohydrates (12% DV), 3 grams of dietary fiber (10% DV), 15 grams of total sugars, 13 grams of added sugars (25% DV), and 4 grams of protein.
Specially Selected Jalapeño Corn Chowder:
Jalapeño corn chowder ready to serve.
This is similar to the regular corn chowder above, with carrots and potatoes in a thick and creamy base, except that it also contains diced jalapeño peppers. This also has its share of added sugar, with 10 grams per serving (20% DV). It’s not quite as sweet as the regular corn chowder, and it’s moderately spicy thanks to the jalapeños. Yet that sweet flavor is still clearly there under the spice. This didn’t do it for any of our taste testers.
Jalapeño Corn Chowder nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
This is kosher certified.
This also contains its share of processed ingredients similar to the regular corn chowder described earlier. It has whipping cream that contains dextrose, carrageenan, mono- and diglycerides, cellulose gum, and polysorbate 80.
Besides the sugar, this also has a fair amount of fat, saturated fat, and sodium. A 1-cup serving has 190 calories, 7 grams of total fat (9% DV), 4 grams of saturated fat (21% DV), 710 mg of sodium (31% DV), 30 grams of total carbohydrates (11% DV), 3 grams of dietary fiber (11% DV), 14 grams of total sugars, 10 grams of added sugars (20% DV), and 3 grams of protein.
The Verdict:
Specially Selected Gourmet Soup Corn Chowder and Specially Selected Gourmet Soup Jalapeño Corn Chowder both feature corn, potatoes, carrots, and seasonings in a thick, creamy broth. These had the potential to be good, but the majority of our taste testers had trouble getting past all the added sugar and the overwhelming sweet taste both of these chowders have. Even the jalapeño corn chowder is quite sweet under the moderately spicy pepper flavor. The regular corn chowder has 13 grams of added sugar per serving while the jalapeño corn chowder has 10 grams of added sugar per serving. These are just too sweet.
