I love soup but I have never found a tin or packet that tastes as good as home made. I'm generally not a fan of Cup- A-Soup type instant soups either as I find them too weak tasting or salty. But I'm about to go on a camping trip where I need to take as many groceries as I can with me, so everything needs to be light and easy to carry. That's why I decided to give these "soup in a mug" a try, especially as they cost just 15p for 4 single serve sachets. I tried the vegetable flavour which is the only one available in my local branch.

They can be found with other types of soups in Sainsburies, where they are part of the supermarkets own-label Basics range. The soup comes in the form of a sachet of dried soup powder that needs to be reconstituted with boiling water. They come packaged in an outer cardboard box with simple no- nonsense design. The front of the pack is a mostly white box with the distinctive Basics orange labelling. The back contains all the essential information - ingredients, nutrient information and preparation guidelines. I wouldn't say that the box looks attractive but it is easy to recycle. I found it easy to open, as are the sachets inside. Each one contains 1 mug size portion. These don't look much different from the more expensive branded sachets. If you don't like to have own brand products on view, you could take these out of their outer box.

My first impressions were that the soup powder had quite a strong savoury smell, just like vegetable soup which surprised me. I could actually pick out distinct aromas, such as celery and onion. Vegetable powders make up 13% of the contents with dried vegetables another 4%. I could see some small pieces of vegetable, chiefly carrot, but it doesn't have any big chunks. I followed the preparation instructions which are to empty the soup powder into a mug and then pour on 200ml of boiling water and stir. The soup had a milky white look, with the veg pieces floating on top. I found the texture of the soup quite thin. This suited me as I was "eating" it more as a hot comforting drink on this occasion, and a thicker soup would have been difficult to eat without a spoon. However, as more of a snack, I didn't find it substantial enough to be filling. I found that I really did have to stir very well in order to get the powder to disolve completely without any lumps forming. The stirring was worth it though because the actual taste was good. I thought the flavour was stronger than most of the branded soups I have tried, genuinely tasty, and not over salted or seasoned. I couldn't detect any pea flavour but the other veg listed in the ingredients list came through - celery, carrot and onion.

Overall I am amazed at the good depth of flavour in such a cheap product. I would recommend it as a nice change from a regular hot drink or if you were looking for a good value, quick and easy light snack. I wouldn't recommend it for a really filling lunch or for those that like chunky textured soups.

Some extra information: The soup is suitable for vegetarians. It is not vegan as it contains milk protein. I found it quite difficult to wash the soup residue from the bottom from my mug when I had left it there for about an hour so I would recommend prompt cleaning! A full nutrition table is available on the packaging broken down per serving, 100ml and as a % of an adult womens GDA. Each mug would have 21.7% of a womens guideline amount of salt, so I would look carefully at the rest of the salt I ate on a day I had one of these. Saturated fat is 4.5%.

This review will also appear on Ciao, under the same author name.