First off , here's some links covering the MRE's as a whole:
MRE Info
Wikipedia's entry on MRE's
Olive Drab.com's article
Now, as you know, MRE's are increasingly harder to get even inside the US these days, since their prices have risen due to various foreign and domestic crises of America. The second factor that has made MRE's pretty hard to find is, that the military strongly prohibits commercial sales of the MRE packages. Sometimes, though, MRE's end on commercial markets for sale (mainly E-Bay etc.), and civilian personnel are able to gain access to them. Apparently just this year the US Department of Defence has tried to limit the sales of MRE's on civilian market, but currently I have no info on how this crusade's going. I managed to buy a few off from a certain internet auction - site some time ago, and all in all the place didn't exactly ask extremely high prices of them. Then again, the seller told me that he had personally bought them off from some guy in the US 3rd Infantry Division while he was on tour.
As for the contents of the basic "Meal-Ready-To-Eat Individual" - package, here's a very illustrative picture I took from the contents of menu 21:
As you can see, the main dish in this specific menu is Chicken Tetrazzini, and the ration package is marked with the number "21". The main course is supposed to be warmed with the MRE heater bag, which relies on a chemical reaction with added water to heat the entry: simply put, you just add some water into the bag and throw the main dish package inside it to get hot food in a few moments. All the other stuff can be eaten "as is", or then you might need water i.e. for the drinks.
The little package inside the MRE, which I named as "the little bag of goodies", contains the following (and I'm sorry for the completely idiotic placement of the picture, but the software won't place it on "center", as I'd like) :
The contents of this specific bag may vary. For an example, I've heard that the newer MRE goodie bags also have instant coffee in them. So far, though, I haven't come across any instant coffee bags.
But, in order to move into the actual review of this product, I'll start reviewing the various food articles located in it:
The main course: Chicken Tetrazzini
First of all, I'll have to admit that I ate this one the last. I didn't have any idea what this Chicken Tetrazzini was, and since it sounded Italian, I expected something with Pasta in it. As I placed it inside the heater bag and poured in the water, the larger-than-life chemical reaction instantly started ! I remember reading from several sources, that it was only supposed to take fifteen minutes to get "very hot" food with this heater bag, but reality was a bit more bitter. It actually took close to 30 minutes to get it hot enough for consumption.
As I had a taste, this Tetrazzini made out of chicken tasted pretty good: it was compromised of (naturally) chicken, some sorts of Macaroni's and vegetables. It didn't taste bad at all.
Filled Pretzels, Nacho Cheese
Which "part" of the entire meal were these supposed to be ? I'm thinking, that they were some sorts of snacks, but then again I can't be that sure.
Anyway, these little "Pretzels" were made out of bread and cheese: they pretty much tasted the way they were supposed to. They were crunchy too ! Apparently the little pretzel had some sort of liquid cheese-brand inside it, but the overall "cheesyness" of the entire pastry pretty much absorbed it. They were good, though.
Cocoa Bewerage Powder
This one was the first thing I tasted: first with water (yuck) and then properly mixed with milk. I'll have to say though, that the powder sure was bitter in taste, and mixed with plain simple water it wasn't much of treat. I'm sure that MRE Cocoa powder mixed with water is pretty close to the taste of muddy water - although I can't be sure ! With milk, though, it was a completely different story.
So, this bewerage powder has to be mixed with milk in order for it to be enjoyable enough. If mixed with water, you might as well as drink water from a muddy gutter. I'm personally accustomed to cocoa powders with more sugar in them, but this one certainly had more cocoa in it without the smooth chocolate taste of the civilian stuff I've been drinking in the past.
Iced Tea Drink Mix (Lemon)
This one was the best drink of the entire pack. It's basically just normal ice tea with lemon-flavor. You just mix it in the water, shake well, add some ice - and you're done !
Spiced Cider Instant Apple Flavor Drink Mix
As if the name wouldn't have been long enough, the story behind this one sure was odd: the label on the back stated, that it had to be mixed into hot water. Now, who the hell drinks hot cider ?! Apparently the Americans do, since they've manufactured such oddities into their MRE's. For awhile, a genuine thought of bewilderment towards the instructions to use hot water for the job clouded my mind.
Anyway, I did what the label asked for, and emptied the contents into a glass full of boiled water. I have to say, that the ensuing hot cider drink truly did taste like cider - only it was hot and I'm accustomed to drinking it cold ! This one also had enough sugar in it. It wasn't bad at all, I'm just not accustomed to these sorts of hot ciders.
Chewing Gum
Some of the stories I've heard concerning the MRE chewing gum are just plain nasty. Apparently the gum gives you the shakes, the Heebie-Jeebies and a dozen other wacky intestinal problems. In some stories, this one is supposed to make you crap your pants and in others, it just won't exit the natural way.
In my case, the MRE gum was as normal as the stuff you could buy from the stores. Nothing wrong with it, and it also sticks into benches the same way as normal civilian gum does.
The small bottle of Tabasco
Goddamn, almighty !
The bottle of Tabasco is certainly one of the most useful items in the whole package: it spices up your food, and there's an adequate amount of it too in the small bottle. They should really make a bigger bottle of this stuff with every MRE, since it makes everything you put it on taste hot n' spicy !! Madre de Dios !!
Matches
Just normal matches in a little package. Nothing to report, sir.
Soft Chocolate cake/cookie
This one was a pretty good article of food too. It wasn't too dry and it was certainly soft too: certainly a pleasure to eat.
M&M's
You know, I hope that these little packs of M&M's reach every soldier on the battlefield via the MRE. They're little colorful drops of candy (as you know), and they taste good ! It's identical to the civilian stuff, naturally, but candy like this which tastes good and makes you happy in a cross fire with its' cheery colors deserves to be distributed as far as possible.
Now, I don't know about you, but I'd be very happy to recieve a pack of these during a mission.
The MRE spoon
The MRE spoon that comes with the package is handy in so many ways. First of all, it has been manufactured out of extremely sturdy plastic, so it won't break that easily. It is also small and you can probably re-use it, since that's what I did, at least !
Every morning afterwards, I've eaten my cerials with this great spoon manufactured out of pure military craftsmanship ! You should save yours too !
The final verdict: These things are great ! The MRE is pure magnificance ! The food in menu #21 was great, although these military rations naturally do include a much higher calory content than normal civilian food. Nevertheless I found the food to be excellent for my personal tastes, and would gladly eat more MRE's if they were made more easily available for us foreign civilians. Now, I'm sure that your neighbourhood restaurant might serve much better food, but for a guy like me, this stuff was pure manna from the sky. Granted, I do settle for very little, and thus my taste buds aren't exactly configured for the extreme, microscopic scans of the food's quality. I won't complain about food as basic as this. There's really nothing wrong with it, and the servicemen and women complaining over the quality should probably be left out of the food loop for a while - then they'd be able to appreciate stuff like this - even if, granted, it isn't the most healthy stuff out there.
These MRE's are great for any and all activities outdoors. You should always take a few with you for some extreme camping, hunting, bird watching etc. stuff.
The only bad thing I have to say, though, is of the heater bag: despite what the instructions on the bag stated, it does take alot longer than fifteen minutes to heat the food for optimal consumption temperatures. You'll have to keep the main course in the bag for at least 30-45 minutes in order for it to be warm enough. Now, I don't know about other experiences concerning the heaters, but at least around here it takes considerably more than fifteen minutes to make it hot !
Any comments or questions over my review are (more than) welcome !
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