Gino The Soup Man

What Gino The Soup Man is

Gino The Soup Man sells frozen, fully prepared vegan soups, not a kit. It's the online arm of Great Full Gardens, a small organic restaurant group in Reno, Nevada, founded by Gino and Juli Scala, and it ships soups and cold-pressed juices across the country. The company says "All juices and soups are vegan and made with the highest quality 100% organic ingredients, no artificial flavors, or preservatives, Ever," and that everything is made "fresh daily at our award-winning restaurant commissary," then shipped "flash frozen." It explains that freezing means it doesn't need chemicals or stabilizers to keep the soup. If you want good vegan soup in your freezer without making it yourself, this is exactly that, in quart-sized tubs.

The backstory is on the About page. Gino spent 27 years in food service sales and marketing, Juli is a certified life coach and self-taught cook, and the company says their recipes have been "made and served to over a million people since 2011." Great Full Gardens has 4 restaurants in the Reno and Sparks area, and the company says it won a National Restaurant Award. The soups started in the couple's home kitchen before reaching Reno's Great Basin Community Food Co-op.

How ordering works

The core product is the Build Your Own Frozen Soups Box. You pick flavors from a menu the company says covers "18 different 100% organic plant based soups," and the FAQ says you build a box "of 8, 16, or 24 items." You can buy it once or set it to repeat, and the FAQ lists "weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or every 6 weeks" as the options. Juices can be bought in boxes of up to 24 with the same subscription choice.

If you'd rather not choose, there are fixed packages of 8 soups: The Classic Soups, a Get Well Soon Package, the Soup-er Hearty collection ("the 8 heartiest, chunkiest and satisfying-est soups in the line") and the Meal Makers Soup Package. The Meal Makers set is the clever one: every soup in it is a base for a family meal, and the company provides recipe cards or YouTube videos of Gino cooking dishes like a Magical Mushroom Pot Pie or Pumpkin Sage & Hempseed Pasta from them. The company says each of those dishes will feed a family of 4, and the set includes Fabulous French Onion alongside the chowder, chili and kale and lentil soups. There are also freeze-dried soups for longer storage, and juice cleanses.

The recurring purchase notice at checkout refers to a cancellation policy, but the terms for skipping or pausing a subscription aren't laid out on the site.

What it costs

Prices are published. In the Build Your Own box, each soup is "$25.00 per item," so an 8-soup box is $200 before shipping. The fixed 8-soup packages are $200 each. The "6 Freeze Dried Soup - Fan Favorites (Each Soup Feeds 4)" pack is $100. Juice cleanses run from $150 for the 3 Day Greens Juice Cleanse and $160 for the 3 Day Organic Juice Cleanse to $280 for the 7 Day Juice Cleanse.

Shipping is where the site contradicts itself. The homepage says "Shipping is FREE," while product pages say "Shipping calculated at checkout." Check your cart before you commit. The newsletter promises "exclusive discounts," but there's no standing first-order promotion on the site.

The food itself

Each soup is "32 ounces and serves 2-4," and juices are 16 ounces. The company says all soup is made with organic coconut or olive oil, with "No added seed oils." Most soups are gluten-free, though "with the exception of a few," which are flagged on each product page.

The menu is broad and genuinely varied. Aztec is a chunky Southwest-style soup with black beans, wild rice and soyrizo; the Coconut Corn & Sweet Potato Chowder, which the company calls the "candy" of soup, brings Thai green curry and lemongrass; Krazy Kale & Lentil leans on cumin, curry and turmeric; Magical Mushroom & Barley gets white truffle oil; and there's a vegan minestrone called Vegistroni, an Organic Totally Tomato, a Sensational Split Pea, a Smokin' Potato Leek, a Chayote Chowder, a Luscious Lemon & Artichoke, Roasted Eggplant & Garlic, Pumpkin Sage & Hempseed, Mega Vega Chili and Rae's Red Lentil & Curried Cauliflower Bisque. Ingredient lists are printed for each soup, so you can see exactly what's in them; many use almond milk or coconut milk for creaminess, which matters if you have a nut allergy.

Some product descriptions make health claims, for example that the kale and lentil soup's spices are "alkalizing to the body." Those are the company's words, not ours.

Who it reaches

The company ships nationwide from its Reno kitchen, frozen, with dry ice "in eco-friendly packaging." The exact timing isn't consistent across the site. The shipping policy says orders go out "on the first Monday or Tuesday after receiving an order" via "UPS and sent 3 day air," to keep the frozen product in good condition. The homepage says shipments go "2 day air Monday-Weds." And the product FAQ says "We ship same day" and that "Most shipments arrive in 3-5 business days." The practical reading is an early-week dispatch with a few days in transit, but it's worth checking at checkout if you need a delivery by a certain date.

What the site leaves open, and who it suits

The gaps are shipping cost, the subscription skip and cancel terms, and a single clear delivery schedule. Nutrition information beyond ingredients isn't shown on the product listings, and there are no calorie or sodium figures.

Gino The Soup Man suits vegans and anyone eating more plants who want restaurant-made soup on hand, whether as a quick lunch or as the base for a family dinner. The quart size and the 2-4 servings per tub make it better value for households than for one person. It isn't a full meal service; it's soups and juices, so you'll still be sorting out other meals. Almond milk turns up in many of the creamier soups, and every ingredient list is on the product page.