You Can Now Make Campbell's Soup in Your Keurig The new soup pods, along with a forthcoming soda brewing system called Kold, mark the latest bids by Keurig to turn around flagging sales.
By Geoff Weiss
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Might Andy Warhol be tickled or sickened to know that the Campbell's soup cans of the future are being reimagined into tiny plastic pods?
As of today, a partnership between leading coffee brewer Keurig and the iconic soup maker has officially come to fruition in the form of Campbell's Fresh-Brewed Soup. Priced at $11.99 for a box of eight pods, Keurig owners can now brew Chicken Noodle Soup with their machines.
The two-step process begins with a packet of dried noodles and spices, which Keurig suggests emptying into a mug. Next, the broth is brewed over top of the mixture in order for it to cook.
The soups are available in two flavors, Homestyle and Southwest Style -- each of which packs 70 calories and is made with no artificial colors or flavors, the companies say. In order to avoid contaminating flavors between coffee and soup brews, "The machine doesn't need to be cleaned, but we recommend running a hot water brew cycle without a pod before and after making the soup," a Campbell's spokesperson told Entrepreneur.
Related: The Keurig K-Cup's Inventor Says He Feels Bad That He Made It. Here's Why.
Announced in 2013 and now available after two long years in development, the partnership "marks a milestone as our first expansion beyond beverages," says Keurig's chief business development and partners officer, Mark Wood. Keurig has already forayed beyond hot beverages with a long-awaited machine called Kold launching later this year that can homebrew Coca-Cola products.
"We know more than 80 percent of people who buy Keurig pods also buy Campbell's soup," added Campbell's marketing director Michael Goodman, in a statement, "so bringing together two products people love in one handy kit is a winning idea."
The collaboration comes as Keurig sales seem to have been put on ice. Last quarter, the company reported a 1 percent decrease in pod sales and a 26 percent decline in brewer sales, and announced it was cutting its workforce by 5 percent.
Related: Home-Brewed Coca-Cola in 2015 Could Transform the Beverage Industry