The Worst Store-Bought New England Clam Chowder Comes From A Popular Brand

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There are a few things you expect from a bowl of New England clam chowder. You want it to be creamy, flavorful, well-seasoned, and loaded with real clam meat and small chunks of potatoes. It's not the easiest feat to pull off, but it's by no means the hardest dish in the world to perfect, either, especially for a big-name company. So, we had high hopes when testing nine store-bought New England clam chowders. Unfortunately, there was one soup that failed to impress on all fronts: Campbell's Chunky Old Bay-Seasoned Clam Chowder.

Campbell's has been producing chunky soups since 1970, with the Old Bay Seasoning collaboration hitting shelves in 2022. There are so many ways to use Old Bay seasoning, so it's a pairing that makes sense, but our tester felt like the execution just wasn't there. Despite Campbell's promising "generous pieces of hearty clams," the soup was mostly made up of potatoes, which is not what you want from a good New England clam chowder.

Not only was the actual clam meat lacking, but so was that signature briny, salty flavor. Instead, all we could taste was the Old Bay Seasoning and while the iconic blend is delicious, it was just overwhelming. The taste of the clam stock was completely lost, making this feel more like a creamy potato soup, rather than a classic clam chowder.

It seems like we aren't the only ones missing that clammy flavor from this product, if online reviews are anything to go by. One Walmart shopper said it was "nowhere near the taste of clam chowder" while another called it "inedible." The seasoning seems to be too much for a lot of people, with another Walmart reviewer agreeing with our potato-overload analysis, "If you're looking for New England clam chowder, you're going to be disappointed. This is chunky potato soup. There was NO clam chowder flavor."

Meanwhile, a Reddit user writes, "Highly over-seasoned in my opinion. I think they need to dial it back a bit," and a review posted on Target's website reads, "It tastes like someone dumped a canister of Old Bay into the soup. It has no other flavor whatsoever." All of that being said, there are some fans of the chowder out there. 

The product has a 4.5 star rating on Amazon, where shoppers have called it a "great soup at a great price" that is "filling and hearty." If you're a really big fan of Old Bay Seasoning, and you don't tend to enjoy a fishy-tasting chowder, then you might enjoy this. But if you're used to eating a more traditional clam chowder, you'd be better off buying one from a smaller company like Blount Clam Shack or Bar Harbor, which were our top picks.