MREviews: BlackDogBob's 24hr Ration + Extras

[MRECivvy]

Hoo boy. This is gonna be a long one. I'm gonna try something different and write this review in bits and pieces as I try everything, because there's no way I'm gonna be able to remember my opinions on everything if I do it all at once. Plus, there's a lot of stuff. So let's just try things "snack-style".
First of all, thank you so much to Parafireboy for selling me this ration and throwing in all the international goodies. He seemed to read my mind somehow; I've always wanted to try some of these international ration items.



I'm gonna start with the Russian "Офицерсий" chocolate. Didn't take a picture of the bar itself, but it had a slight bit of surface bloom, but tasted really good. I prefer crunchier dark chocolate and this one hit all those marks.
Next, I mixed my metaphors and used the MREStar crackers to eat the паштет (pashtet/pate) with. Pate is one of those things that's outside of my comfort zone a bit, but I'm weird so I like spam and other sorts of processed meats, so the pashtet wasn't offensive at all in terms of flavor or texture.

The dried fruit mix is a sort of tropical one, with dried banana, papaya, and pineapple. Very sweet, almost sickly sweet. Not bad, just wish there was less sugar in it.

And to drink, Russian кофе (coffee). I'm not much for black coffee but I drank it that way to taste it; it's pretty similar to most other instant coffees, but this one is relatively acidic and slightly bitter. I think Russian rations come with sweetened condensed milk, which would've gone really good in this coffee.

That'll do it for now, but I have a feeling I'm gonna be eating from this ration for at least the next day and a half. If any of y'all have had experience with any of these items let me know your opinions on them.
And thank you once again, Parafireboy!

[Smitty]

I'm not the biggest fan of MRE-Star but those Russian components look good! Man I gotta get around to eating one some day haha

[MRECivvy]

For lunch - the Tuscan beef over rice, and the tortillas, with orange drink mix.

The Tuscan beef was flavorful, but the beef pieces weren't much bigger than bacon bits. I was sort of hoping that they'd be a little more substantial. It seemed like the majority of the Tuscan beef was actually in the lentils and beans, which were good. It did also have red bell pepper, which I personally am not a fan of because of how often it overpowers the flavor of everything, but it wasn't much of a problem in this case.
The rice I had it over was also pretty good, sort of like the kind of instant rice you buy at a grocery store rather than freshly cooked rice. There wasn't much flavor to it, not even salt or butter, so that would've been something to improve on (if anyone from MRE-Star happens to be reading this), but eating it with the Tuscan beef as opposed to on its own is definitely the way to go.
The orange drink is just like everyday US MRE orange beverage powder. Nothing too special to report on that front.
As for the tortillas, well... Let's just say I have very high standards for tortillas (being from San Antonio, TX) and these, like most pre-packaged tortillas, have a strange blandness and weird aftertaste that just left me disappointed. I don't know what it is about MRE tortillas but they almost always miss the mark. Maybe I'm just biased or expecting too much from them. At least these were slightly moist, unlike those folded-over US MRE ones.
Overall, the Tuscan beef (and mostly veggies) was the highlight, especially when paired with the rice. I eschewed the stove this time and instead boiled the pouches, so everything was nice and piping hot.

[parafireboy]

Hey, good review! I'm glad you liked the extras.