Bar Harbor, Chowder, Lobster and Corn, 15 Ounce

Please note up front, you are not buying a "fresh can 'o lobster chunks". This is a can of lobster bisque, which is a cream-based soup made with minced lobster. Sure, if you go to an expensive restaurant, you can find seafood bisque with huge chunks of fresh lobster or crab at $30 a bowl, but you are not going to find this in a can, regardless of price, period. You certainly won't find it in a $5 can of soup.That said, I have tried just about any can billed as lobster or crab bisque (and yes I've had it in decent restaurants also, so yes I know the difference). I am here to tell you, all brands of bisque are NOT created equally. This is one of the better brands of any kind of seafood bisque. As anything canned goes, this is a decent can of lobster bisque. In fact, it is about the best you are going to buy in a can. It is creamy, it has a delicate seafood flavor (not fishy). It can be enhanced with fresh lobster or crab, if you are so inclined, but if I have fresh lobster or crab, I tend to eat that by itself. It can even be enhanced with an expensive can of crab meat, though said crab will be more expensive than the soup you are enhancing. But for me, living in the Midwest and suffering permanent seafood deficiency syndrome, it is worth it.As a stand-alone soup, this is still very good. Just don't complain that it doesn't have fresh chunks of lobster meat. Add them yourself at a significant price hike, or enjoy this bisque for what it is: a creamy seafood-flavored soup at $5 a can. Highly recommended.

I've read the reviews. I've lived in Rhode Island. I've eaten Manhattan Clam Chowder. I've never eaten anything that tastes like this soup. I won't argue with people who say it is authentic. But be warned it tastes like nothing I've eaten in my lifetime. It is flavorless except for a bitter taste that cannot be watered down or mixed with other ingredients to make it edible. I really, really wanted to find a way to enjoy the soup. I used it as a soup stock. I've added spices. It inevitably still just taste bitter with no redeeming flavor. If you are looking for the authentic clam juice stock that other reviews say this is, then by all means consider the product to be 5 stars worthy. But if you have no history eating such a thing, beware. It's not a food for a wide market of pallets. It's got to be one of those acquired taste things that either you love or you can't get past 1 bite. I rank it in with foods like chitlins or cows tongue that people exist who think they're great (I was a fan of pickle cow tongue sandwiches for a long time because I grow up in Pennsylvania Dutch country). But I can't imagine that you would like trying this for the first time as an adult.

This chowder was very good but I gave it 4 stars because I knew there wouldn't be enough clams in it, and I was correct. I keep chopped clams in my pantry so that helped.

This was absolutely delicious. But you need to prepare it properly to make it perfect restaurant quality.This starts as a base. I warmed it up and added a 1/3 of a can of heavy cream and 1/3 of a can of milk. I also added salt, pepper, paprika and chili powder to taste. I also diced up a golden potato and boiled them to make them soft, then drained and added the diced potato to the chowder. Finally, I bought a can of chopped clams (same brand as this) and added those. You can slice the clams before adding as you like. I let this simmer for a while and had it with sourdough bread. Absolute perfection! Same quality as a high end seafood restaurant. You can also add bacon, chives of whatever you like. Depending on whether your serving this as a starter or as a main course, this feeds 2-4 people. Definitely will be making this again, but I'm also going to add some rosemary and thyme. I'll update once I make again with those extra ingredients.

Although this is a canned productI expected a thicker stock.I found the soup to be wateryBland taste.....I dislike giving bad reviewsI just would not buy this again

I've seen cans of Bar Harbor Clam Corn Chowder at my local Whole Foods for a while now, and after passing it by for months, I finally got around to purchasing a can. The chowder is thick and creamy and if you find you want to make it a bit more decadent, the instructions indicate that you can add additional milk or cream, although it does not specify how much. I ended up adding half a can of milk to thin it out a bit to a consistency that I liked. While the texture of the soup was smooth, I can't say that I found this chowder to be particularly delicious. The chowder was very bland and seemed to lack any salt or spice in it. I don't generally use a lot of sodium in my diet, so it was very surprising to find something that was so lacking in salt. This was easily fixed by adding the amount of salt I like. The thing that bothered me was the lack of any other seasoning. The chowder seemed flavorless in comparison to other chowders I've tried, and it seemed to consist primarily of potatoes. The clams while decently sized were few, and that paired with the lackluster flavor didn't make the chowder all that memorable. The lack of seasonings and clams could be "fixed" using additional spices and an additional can of clams, but given this is a quick convenience food for our family, I found that it was neither quick nor convenient to have to find stuff to add to the chowder. I will say that I liked how the chowder relied on whole recognizable ingredients and didn't have any strange flavorings or stabilizers included. One thing that particularly bothered the husband was that the chowder was put in a BPA-NI lined can. I personally didn't care about this, but the husband did not like that there may be BPA and requested I no longer pick up this particular brand based on that fact. Overall, while it wasn't a terrible chowder by any means, it just wasn't good enough for me to want to purchase again.

This particular brand of clam chowder is a winner on a cool afternoon. Hard to find in the southeast. Great price for a package of six cans + a reasonable fee for shipping. Lasts me all winter.