A few days ago, a representative from Campbell’s emailed me to see if I’d like to sample one of the soup company’s newest flavors, Kickin’ Buffalo-Style Chicken soup. Never one to reject free Buffalo-style anything, I agreed to try it out, and my colleagues volunteered to taste-test, too.

Today, a package arrived with two tall cans of Campbell’s Chunky soup, and we promptly decided to make today’s lunch a working one. We looked at overall taste, texture and true Buffalo-ness.

Katie and I divvied up the cans into microwave-safe bowls and nuked them for a few minutes.

Ben T. wasn’t too impressed with the chicken, but he did like the “not-overwhelmingly spicy flavor that kind of lingered in our mouths.” He explained further, “You know how you need a drink of water after some spicy foods?” This soup didn’t require a cold beverage within arms length.

I, on the other hand, would’ve liked a little more heat—but not just any heat. To me, nothing says Buffalo-style like Frank’s RedHot sauce, so I expected something closer to Frank’s signature flavor. But, I’m also a heat-seeker when it comes to food. I can tolerate spicier items, but I know it’s probably better for Campbell’s to be safe than sorry.

Kat, our resident soup connoisseur (she eats the stuff almost every day) noticed the consistency of the soup was somewhere between broth-y and and chowder-y, and she wished the texture went one way or the other. She also noted that the soup was “cheesier” than expected, prompting us to look at the ingredient listing on the label.

Before I could even announce that cheddar cheese was, indeed, an ingredient, Ben T. chimed in with a very succinct comparison: “It tastes more like beer-cheddar soup.”

That was it. It had a cheddar flavor. We agreed that Buffalo-style goes well with cheddar, but the cheese of choice should be of the blue variety. The ingredient list did include blue cheese toward the bottom, but we would’ve like that particular flavor more robust.

It wasn’t that we didn’t like the Kickin’ Buffalo-Style Chicken soup; it’s just that it didn’t necessarily taste like a Buffalo wing, or any of the more popular Buffalo wing soups served in Western New York. With that revelation in mind, we determined that the soup is pretty tasty—especially for a canned soup—and we liked the overall flavor and variety of chopped vegetables, but it didn’t taste entirely like a Buffalo wing.

We’d be interested to hear what BuffaloEats.org’s Donnie Burtless has to say about the Campbell’s Buffalo wing soup, considering he’s had some of the city’s best. In 2011, Donnie even served as a celebrity Buffalo wing soup judge at Buffalo Soup-Fest. Watch a video from that event below: