This Aldi Soup Left A Bad Taste In Shoppers' Mouths

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When it comes to the Aldi products that are better than homemade varieties, the store's hummus, potato salad, and triple chocolate cake rank pretty high among shoppers (including us). This illustrates Aldi's ability to make exclusive products that rival or go beyond the quality evident in name-brand items. While the discount grocery chain gets it right much of the time, we have a word of warning regarding one of the store's private label soups. And that word is: don't. 

In our ranking of the best (and worst) soups to buy at Aldi, one variety left quite the impression, and not in a positive way. Simply Nature Organic Chicken Bone Broth fit tidily into the "worst" category due to the impassioned customer response. Ideally, bone broth should have a pleasant scent and flavor, a thick yet smooth texture, and minimal aftertaste, but Aldi's version falls short at every turn. On Facebook, a commenter said, "This brand seems to taste funny to me," when asked about the quality of Aldi's bone broth. Another person replied, "I tried both [Aldi chicken and beef bone broth], I don't like it at all." On Reddit, an Aldi shopper dubbed the chicken bone broth "unusable," while the flavor of the product was described as "Bitter and tastes burned." 

Bone broth is the product of slow-simmering bones in water for six hours or longer. This extended cooking process ensures any remaining meat and connective tissues clinging to the bones can be fully broken down, which explains why bone broth is often gelatinous in texture. Along with its use in recipes, bone broth is touted as a healthy food thanks to its high concentration of protein, as well as small portions of bone-boosting nutrients like calcium and phosphorus. The food is so impressive nutritionally that some people advocate drinking bone broth daily (though the high level of sodium in some brands can be problematic from a health perspective). 

It's not clear why the Simply Nature Organic Chicken Bone Broth from Aldi fails to meet customer expectations, but a Redditor claimed to have discovered a difference between batches of the product. On one label, the first ingredients are water, organic chicken bone broth, and organic vegetable broth. On the second, newer package, the label lists organic chicken stock and organic vegetable broth (the remaining ingredients are largely the same) first. A commenter agreed with the theory, stating, "I still drink it, but yeah it's not as good as it used to be." While this could be a plausible argument for the declining product quality, it's worth mentioning that complaints about Aldi's bone broth began before the supposed change in formula. As such, it's likely that this item is just not as good as other products found at the store.