HouseParty_Blount Bowls (Free Sample)

Hello,

I was selected by houseparty.fun to receive some awesome free items from Blount Bowls in exchange for hosting a party with the items and sharing about them on social media. The Houseparty website is super fun, you can apply for all sorts of parties that you can host for your friends and family and there are also occasionally Chatterbox opportunities for sampling without hosting a party. This party was super fun and I was actually very surprised about the results of who liked the products and who did not love them as much. I thought my sister would really love these because she loves soup more than anyone I know but unfortunately she was semi uninterested in these soups whereas my mother who typically doesn’t like soup, absolutely loved these and will be picking up more to take to work for lunch.

About Blount Bowls from the Website: 
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Our Story

The Blount Family has been in the food business since 1880. Our product line includes refrigerated and frozen gourmet soups, sauces, side dishes and entrées for food service and retail. Blount's gourmet soups and specialty foods are made with the finest and freshest ingredients, handcrafted by our dedicated team through unparalleled customer collaboration. Our seafood background establishes us as the largest producer of Clam Chowder in New England and the largest manufacturer of Lobster Bisque in the country. We also make a large variety of Beef, Chicken and Organic soups. For a more in depth view on Blount Fine Foods, visit Sea to Soup, a book which tells our company history.

In the party pack we received:

• 1 Blount Bowls apron (Very nice quality)
• 1 Blount Bowls reusable bag
• 1 Blount Bowls dish rag
• A bunch of little Blount Bowls serving cups
• 8 Coupons for a free Blount Bowl product
• 12 coupons for $1.50 off of a Blount Bowl

I used the product locator on the blountbowls.com to find stores near me that carry these products. I found that really only Super Target stores in my area carry these so I headed to my closest Super Target and was lucky enough to pick up one of each flavor using the Free Bowl coupons that I received. There are four flavors to choose from; Hibachi Chicken and Rice Bowl, Vegetable Rice Bowl, Coconut Chicken and Noodle Bowl, and Chicken Ramen Bowl. These Blount Bowls are kept cold in the fresh deli section of the store, I am glad that I read about that on the website or I would have been searching all over for these but was glad to easily find them in a cold case below the deli counter. I was a little bit frustrated though because I purchased one of each and after getting home I realized that the Chicken Ramen bowl was going to expire in just 3 days whereas the others would be good for about another month. This was definitely the fault of Target, not Blount Bowls as I am sure this particular item had just sat on the shelf longer than the others. I went back to Target and picked up another Chicken Ramen bowl that had a sell by date of several weeks out. I learned to pay a little more attention to the dates on these so that I am not rushing to eat them since they are a more freshly prepared item in comparison to your typical ramen, Campbell’s, or Progresso type soups.

Hibachi Chicken and Rice Bowl
I personally really liked this bowl, it has a great smell and flavor although it did have a bit of a spice to it. I thought that the rice broke apart nicely and cooked into the broth well. To prepare these bowls, you microwave it for a while, then stir it, then microwave a bit longer. Prior to stirring, the rice was not mixed in well and was still a bit chunky but after mixing and the additional microwaving the rice fully cooked into the broth nicely. In the package, the rice is tightly packed together so I tried to break it up a bit while I was pouring it into the bowl of broth. I had read another review that mentioned how the rice stuck together in globs but I think with a little bit of stirring that could have been prevented, sounds like user error to me. I was also surprised that after having cooked in the bowl that the rice was nice and soft, from the package it seemed like the rice might be a little bit crunchy but it was not at all, I think the steam from microwaving may have softened it up a bit while it was cooking. I really liked the flavor of this bowl and it seemed that all of the other guests at the party liked this one as well and would eat it again in the future but it was not a favorite for anyone. The only thing I would change about this bowl is maybe adding more liquid broth, after having added the rice and let it sit for a moment to cool down it seemed that the rice absorbed quite a bit of the broth making it quite thick and not much liquid remaining to make it soupy.

Vegetable Rice Bowl
This bowl was also very tasty, I was very surprised at how much flavor this had considering it is a vegetable bowl but it was very flavorful and enjoyable. Similar to the Hibachi Chicken and Rice Bowl, the rice seemed to be hard in its air tight package but after opening it and following the cooking instructions, the rice became soft and mixed into the vegetable broth well. I thought this one was a little better than the Hibachi Chicken and Rice Bowl in terms of texture and consistency. After having added the rice, this bowl remained nice and juicy and soupy like I had expected whereas the Hibachi Chicken bowl had too much stuff and not enough broth so became a much thicker meal than one would typically expect soup to be like.

Coconut Chicken and Noodle Bowl
I thought that this one would be the least liked out of all of the bowls but it turned out to be the overwhelming favorite. I hate coconut flavor so I was worried that I would not like this one at all but actually it did not have any sort of coconut flavor (I think it might just be coconut oil or something) but the flavor from the chicken and spices was fabulous and super flavorful. I thought in terms of the consistency, the broth versus the amount of noodles was proportioned well and it was more soupy than the rice bowls. My grandpa liked this one so much that he took the leftovers home for a snack at dinner time.

Chicken Ramen Bowl 
This one was the least favorite and also the least flavorful of all of the four bowls we tried. It also looks the least flavorful once made. Similar to the Coconut Chicken and Noodle bowl, I thought the consistency was good between the broth and the noodles but I thought it could have had more flavor, even just a bit more salt would have done the trick. My mom actually liked this one best but no one else in the group liked this one as much as the others. In my opinion, the lack of flavor made this meal feel sort of fake; it reminded me of warm water with plastic noodles. This is not one that I personally would purchase again but I think my mom will be getting some of these to take to work for lunch.

Overall, I thought these bowls were much better than I had originally imagined. Typically I am not a fan of soup of any kind but I really liked the Hibachi Chicken and Rice bowl, although I would have liked it to have more liquid. I was surprised though that my sister did not really seem to love any of these, I thought she would be the biggest fan as she LOVES soup usually. I thought that the noodle bowls were a better consistency than the rice bowls, I think the rice bowls could reduce the amount of rice then they would have been better. I thought the flavorful tastes of the bowls were awesome; they were much tastier than typical soup with the exception of the Chicken Ramen bowl which had little to no flavor. As far as the extra items we received for the party, I was really surprised at how nice the apron was, it is nice and thick and will last quite a while I think. Also the reusable bag, it is an interesting material; on the outside it almost feels like a paper bag but then on the inside it feels like cloth like your usual reusable bag. It seems like a silly thing but the material of that bag is just really interesting to me.

Ranking from most favorite to least favorite:

1. Coconut Chicken and Noodle Bowl
2. Hibachi Chicken and Rice Bowl
3. Vegetable and Rice Bowl
4. Chicken Ramen Bowl

Social Sharing: #BlountBowlsParty #Sponsored #FreeSample 

Checkout Blount Bowls Here: http://www.blountbowls.com/

Checkout the Houseparty.fun website here: https://www.houseparty.fun

Checkout my unboxing and review video here: