Bo and Marrow Bone Broth vs. Bluebird Provisions
Bo and Marrow Bone Broth is good but not great. Why? There is something with their ingredient sourcing that makes it a step below the best bone broths.
What is it? Read on to find out.
There’s lots of great options for bone broth in Canada. This article will review Bo and Marrow Bone Broth and eventually compare it to Bluebird Provisions.
Disclaimer: I am the founder of Bluebird Provisions. By definition that makes me biassed. However, we will focus this review on objective things like ingredient lists, nutrition facts and independent reviews.
This is the only way to tell if Bo and Marrow are a quality bone broth.
What is Bo and Marrow Bone Broth?
Bo and Marrow is a bone broth brand based out of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They make a line of frozen bone broth that is found in many grocery stores in Canada.
Bo and Marrow also sells pet broth, cooking oil and soups.
According to their website:
Bo & Marrow’s premium bone broths start with the highest quality ingredients. Many of which are home grown right here in Canada.
Do they really use the highest quality ingredients? I will show you why that is not the case.
Ingredients in Bo and Marrow
For the sake of this review, we will focus on Bo and Marrow frozen bone broth.
Bo and Marrow Chicken Bone Broth Ingredients
Chicken Bones, (onions, carrots, celery, lemon, thyme, parsley, peppercorns, garlic, bay leaves), apple cider vinegar.
Bo and Marrow Beef Bone Broth Ingredients
Beef Bones, Veggies (onions, carrots, celery, thyme, parsley, peppercorns, garlic, bay leaves), apple cider vinegar.
Bo and Marrow Little Munchkins Bone Broth Ingredients
Beef Bones, Veggies ( carrots, celery, parsnip ), apple cider vinegar.
Bo and Marrow Pho Real Bone Broth Ingredients
Beef Bones, Veggies and spices (onions, ginger, star anise, cloves, cinnamon stick, cardamom, fennel seeds, and coriander seeds, Himalayan salt, Cane sugar, Red Boat fish sauce.
Red Flag Ingredients
Cane Sugar
This is nitpicking as this ingredient is only used in Bo and Marrow’s Pho Bone Broth product. Sugar usually does not belong in bone broth but we will give them a pass because it’s a Pho.
There are not a lot of other red flag ingredients in Bo and Marrow. Apple Cider Vinegar is not necessary in bone broth, but if they want to use it, go ahead.
What’s Missing From The Ingredients?
Certified Organic
The big thing missing are organic ingredients. Bo and Marrow bone broth is not certified organic nor does it use any organic ingredients.
Why is organic so important for bone broth in Canada?
You must have some type of 3rd party certification for all food products, especially meat-based products like bone broth.
Organic provides a level of trust you cannot achieve without it.
Certified Organic products meet strict guidelines in terms of animal welfare, animal feed, living conditions and environmental sustainability.
Without it, you are placing your trust in brands that use buzzwords like ‘pasture raised’ and ‘grass fed.’
These terms are used to mislead consumers and create a health halo that certain bone broth are top quality… when they are not.
It is difficult to trust a bone broth without it being Certified Organic.
For more info on this, read the ultimate checklist to buying bone broth in Canada.
Bo and Marrow Nutrition Facts
Pho Bone Broth Nutrition
Beef Bone Broth Nutrition
Chicken Bone Broth Nutrition
Little Munchkins Bone Broth Nutrition
Nutrition Facts Analysis
Protein
Bo and Marrow Bone Broth has between 8-9 g of protein per 250ml serving. The Pho broth lists 14 g per 250ml serving. Although the nutrition label on their website is not correct, it shows 4 g sugar but 0 g carbs per serving. This is confusing and impossible since sugar is carbohydrate.
Anyways, 8-9 g per cup is right where most brands find themselves in terms of bone broth. No issues here with protein in Bo and Marrow.
Sodium
Bo and Marrow have between 220-430 mg of sodium per serving. This works out to 9-14% of your recommended daily intake.
This is on the high end of what is acceptable for a quality bone broth. You typically like to see most frozen bone broths with around 200 mg of sodium.
Brands add salt to mask taste deficiencies.
Carbohydrates
You’ll find 3-4 g of carbs in bo and marrow bone broth (except the chicken has 0). Bo and Marrow Pho broth has 4 g of sugar per serving.
Why so many carbs?
Bone broth brands add too many vegetables to their bone broth. The vegetables cook down into starch, which adds carbohydrates to the final product.
If you are on a keto or low carb diet, you may want to keep track of the carbs in this bone broth.
Bo and Marrow Reviews
Online ratings and reviews are one of the only pieces of objective feedback you can trust. However, you cannot necessarily trust all the reviews from a brands’ own website. Why? They can delete all the bad reviews, leaving you with one side of the story.
Where do we look for legit reviews online?
Third party websites like Amazon. However, Bo and Marrow is not on Amazon, so we need elsewhere.
Here are the three most recent reviews I could find from SPUD and Two Farm Kids.
GARBAGE. Dont waste your money
Tastes really good on its own. This has great flavour and tastes good in a mug by itself.
Good one. Good one
As you can see, you get a lot of different types of reviews online. The negative one offers no context or details, so I wouldn’t look into it too much.
It looks like customers generally like the taste of Bo and Marrow.
Bo and Marrow Packaging
Bo and Marrow use standup spout pouches to package their bone broth. This is standard for frozen bone broth in Canada.
Bo and Marrow vs. Bluebird Provisions
Bluebird Provisions is another frozen bone broth in Canada. The big differences are the following:
- Bluebird Provisions is Certified Organic, meaning all the ingredients are organic and Canadian sourced.
- There is 11 g protein per 250ml serving in Bluebird Provisions vs. 8 g in Bo and Marrow Chicken Bone Broth.
- Sodium: Bluebird Provisions has less sodium per serving (200 mg vs. 260 mg)
- Bluebird Provisions ships across Canada right to your door.
Bottom Line:
When it comes to bone broth options in Canada, there are many. That being said, you must do your research to figure out which products are real bone broth and which are not.
Bo and Marrow is certainly real bone broth. They have a solid product.
Here are three things we like about Bo and Marrow:
- No fillers, preservatives or concentrates
- Traditionally made bone broth in Canada
- Higher protein than many other Canadian bone broth brands
And three things we don’t like:
- Conventional sourcing with no Organic ingredients
- They do not ship Canada wide
- Sodium could be a bit lower
If you’re looking for the absolute best tasting high quality Organic Bone Broth in Canada, stick with Bluebird Provisions.