If you’re feeling blue about packing away your swimsuit until next summer or the Ducks’ poor start to the football season, we recommend eating away your pain. And one of the great fall and winter comfort foods is chili — that delicious mix of meat, beans, veggies and spices slow-cooked in Crock-Pots and Dutch ovens across America (and beyond).

While the exact origins of chili aren’t known, descriptions of chili-like stews served in Texas date back to the early 1800s. It was featured at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago at a booth called the San Antonio Chili Stand, and the dish’s popularity had spread throughout the United States by the mid-20th century.

For this taste test, we reopened The Bulletin test kitchen (aka an empty cubicle) and rustled up 10 different chilis from restaurants and food trucks around Bend — more difficult to find than you would think.

Now before the angry emails begin, yes, we know there are more than 10 locales serving chili around town. However, we focused on establishments that have chili on their menu daily and kept our sample set to 10 in the interests of our waistlines, timeline and taste buds.

Our eager team of chili experts (aka hungry co-workers) sampled each chili and assessed its aroma, texture, taste and meat-to-bean ratio. Here’s the skinny (or not-so-skinny, as the case may be).

The BBQ duo

If you want chili that’s hearty and homemade, these first two fit the bill.

Reviews from our picky crew on the chili bowl from Bend Burger Co. were universally positive. The smoky aroma reminded us of an outdoor barbecue, and the mix of steak and ground beef was well balanced with the black beans, kidney beans and other vegetables, mostly peppers. The sauce had an enjoyable, tangy flavor and aroma (from vinegar, perhaps) setting it apart from the other contenders. Everything was tender without being overcooked, and it was moderately spicy (2.5 peppers out of 4 on our imaginary spice-o-meter), but not to the point that it made you grab for a glass of water.

This chili bowl was served with cheese and green onions sprinkled on top and a side of thick, toasted bread, perfect for dunking or scraping up those last yummy bits left in the bowl.

Cost: $4.99 for a pint.

We had high expectations for the chili from a restaurant with “Barbeque” in its name, and the spicy smokehouse chili from Baldy’s Barbeque did not disappoint. It was rich and spicy, with a stronger tomato flavor than some others and an underlying sweetness. The heat-fiends among us were hoping it would have a little more of a kick, given its name. However, although it may have earned “only” 2.5 peppers on our spice-o-meter, it still packed plenty of flavor. Baldy’s chili had a fairly even balance of meat to beans, and the meat was flavorful.

The spicy smokehouse chili was $4 and served with cheese, diced onions and a side of corn bread moist and delicious enough to warrant a review of its own. And to my colleagues wondering who nabbed the last piece of that cornbread: bwahaha — it was mine, all mine!

Tasty tri-tip

Listen up, steak lovers (vegetarians, look away). The next two chilis on our odyssey feature chunks of flavorful tri-tip steak.

We’re not sure if Country Catering & Deli Co. is trying to keep its chili a secret by not advertising it on the menu; but they serve it regularly, and it’s delicious. Maybe they just don’t want the masses to know about it so there will be more left for themselves. Conspiracies abound!

The enticing aroma of Country Catering’s chili was more than matched by its complex flavors. The large, seasoned, tender pieces of tri-tip — obviously cooked to perfection before going into the chili — were a standout and well balanced by the other flavors from the tomato, beans, sliced green and red peppers and spices in the dish. It earned two peppers on our spice-o-meter and was served with a side of cheese and chopped onion. While it was the priciest chili we tried at $5.90, one pundit noted that the generous portion could probably feed two.

The carnivores among us were feeling the love for the tri-tip chili from Cody’s Catering & Cookshack. This food truck has a smoker out back, and it certainly did its job, adding a smoky aroma and flavor to the large pieces of steak prominent in the dish. It was hearty, with chunky pieces of red bell peppers, onions and more. This chili definitely tilted toward the meat side of the equation, with a lower proportion of beans than most others we sampled. We gave this one two peppers on our heat index. It had a little heat that built as we ate more. The pint serving was filling, and at $5, we felt as though we got our money’s worth.

Vegetarian

We sampled two vegetarian chilis in our travels, and they couldn’t have been more different from one another.

Next Level Burger offers its three-bean chili as a side for $3.50. As with all its menu items, the chili is vegetarian, organic and includes no genetically modified ingredients. We like to think of it as the feel-good chili of the bunch. Our arteries thanked us for giving them a break from all the red meat with this one.

The three-bean chili had a pleasant, mellow aroma and compensated for the absence of meat with quinoa, which fortified it and added texture. However, it lacked seasoning, and the onion somewhat overpowered any other flavors in the dish. This one scored only half a pepper on the spice-o-meter.

The vegetarian chili from Country Catering & Deli Co. was so satisfying and tasty that initially we thought they had given us their regular meaty chili by mistake. More than one tester didn’t realize at first that they were eating a vegetarian chili.

It was not at all soupy, its big pieces of vegetables bulked up with hominy and corn in addition to the usual tomato, onion, peppers and beans. The seasoning was spot on, earning two peppers on our heat index. Any more and the spices would have overpowered the other yummy flavors of this dish.

A pint costs $5.90 (the same price as their meat chili) and is served with cheese and chopped onion.

Back to basics

Three chili dishes lacked the same pizazz as the aforementioned gems, yet we could see the appeal for someone looking for a basic chili con carne, aka just beans and meat flavored to perfection.

Need a visual for this group? Think chili from a can, and that’s basically the composition.

Corey’s Bar and Grill in downtown Bend was first up. It’s bar food, so expecting something a tad more gourmet was unreasonable, we know. Still — it tasted so similar to Nalley’s canned chili, it was tempting to peer into the kitchen to look for an empty can.

That said, if you’re really hungry, it’s not offensive tasting, has a zesty aroma and suitably hits the spot. It had a good spice to it, creeping up to three peppers on the spice-o-meter — perhaps the spiciest of all the chilis.

The meat and bean combination was more like a puree with a higher ratio of beans than meat. But at $4 per cup, it will do the job and warm your belly.

Jake’s Diner serves chili as a side dish for $4.95. If you’re looking for a meat and bean chili that’s meaty, this is your joint.

Jake’s delivered a thick chili topped with cheese and onions. None of us were impressed, however, with the flavor. It measured only one and a half to two peppers on our spice-o-meter. Tangy goodness, sweet overtones, other seasonings — all indistinct.

We suspect this pot of chili cooked a little too long, turning the beans into mush. Maybe Jake’s chili cook was having an off day or a day off.

Sargent’s Cafe, a friendly diner on SE Third Street, was our favorite out of the three basic chilis. It delivered a balanced ratio of beans and beef — you could distinguish the beans from the meat in this chili — along with decent flavor. One colleague called it “smoky, meaty and good.”

The cup of chili for $3.50 came topped with cheese and onions. It smelled like chili should. It had the right amount of spice, plenty of chili powder and an overall satisfying flavor that was more than one note.

The delivery vessel itself, however, was a little off-putting: The chili came in a 16-ounce paper cup — a to-go coffee cup complete with lid. As one co-worker said, “the delivery system is no big deal; it’s what’s inside that counts.”

Still weird, though.

Out of left field

If you watched “Sesame Street” as a kid (or you still watch it as an adult — come on, ’fess up), you probably remember the song that goes, “One of these things is not like the others.” The chili from Pilot Butte Drive-In is kind of like that. Not bad, just different.

It came with chopped onion and a LOT of cheese already added. Even if your motto is “There’s no such thing as too much cheese,” the amount added to this chili could make you reconsider that. The abundance of melted cheese and surprising addition of olives led one of our tasters to remark that it looked more like a science experiment than chili.

While the “peas cannot touch carrots” folks were preoccupied picking the olives out of their chili, the rest of us found that it actually tasted quite good, with a nice tomato base. There didn’t seem to be much meat, with the beans and vegetables dominating, and some felt it seemed more like a stew than chili. A cup cost $4.25.