Is It Soup Yet?

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A colleague of mine is a Soupevangelist. Yes, he loves his soup in general — but he totally adores the soup that gets delivered to him every week, courtesy of SoupCycle.

And because he’s all about sharing the good news — if not the soup itself, he arranged for us to have a soup tasting a month or so ago. (Don’t even think about dipping your spoon into the soup he stores in the communal refrigerator at work, not even for a teeny tiny taste. Rumor has it that he bites…)

Lovely Vegetarian Soup

So Jed Lazar, one of the two SoupCycle co-founders, pedaled over with his hot plate and stock pots to spread the soupy gospel. He offered up two different soups for our gustatory pleasure — and several more of us signed up for the weekly soup wagon.

Was it the promise of a carbon-neutral way to get food delivered to the office by bicycle? The opportunity to get organic, local soups with an extra dose of sustainability as seasoning? The ability to have some kick-ass hot soup on a cold, blustery day?

In a word: YES.

How does SoupCycle work, anyway? It’s simple:

You sign up for weekly soup deliveries — pick between one of three kinds as your default: vegan, vegetarian, or meaty soup; pay by automatic debit or COD. (You can change out if you’d prefer the corn chowder over the chicken-escarole-white bean soup — Jed sends out The Souplandistan Times email newsletter every week letting you know what’s coming up the next two weeks.)
Every Monday, Jed, Shauna and their small staff make up the soup from organic, local vegetables/ingredients that get delivered to them by bicycle (it’s a recurring theme, just wait…)
And if you work in my office, several quarts of soup (with names lovingly scrawled on with a sharpie) magically appear in our refrigerator some time Tuesday afternoon by the SoupCycle delivery person who arrived there, wait for it — by bike. (See, your soup’s 100% pedal-powered!)

That’s it.

To be fair, there are the ~~cheapskates~~ frugal skeptics in my office who’ve scoffed at the price (8 dollars for a quart of vegan/vegetarian soup; 9 for meaty soups – I generally get two full bowls or 3 cups from my own quart.) But when it’s a cold and rainy November day and I’d have to walk several blocks for whatever’s been sitting in the steam kettle at the coffee shop (courtesy of Sysco) for hours? Nine dollars seems a pittance to pay for the soup that can be easily reheated with minimal effort.

Gone on vacation for two weeks? Just drop Jed an email. Don’t much care for the soup you had last week? Take the weekly soup survey & let them know what you like & don’t like (you just might win a week of free soup!)

But whatever you do? Keep your cotton-pickin’ hands off my mmm-mmm good soup and get your own, please.

You see, I can tell you already that I bite!