MREInfo.com

It's been a while since I decided to try an old MRE for dinner. I was actually hungry tonight and wanted to try something more adventurous for dinner, so I grabbed this! Here are the contents of the MRE laid out on a tray. Here are the contents of the accessory packet. Here is the corned beef hash in its retort pouch. This is the coffee/creamer/sugar, hot cocoa mix and orange beverage base mix prior to adding water. And finally, here's the entire MRE fully prepared! I heated up the corned beef hash for about 10 minutes by placing its retort pouch in boiling water. It actually smelled like corned beef when opening. I took a few small bites, the beef was chewy and the potatoes were soft. A few bites in, my tongue was starting to feel a little sour and numb. If I were starving and had absolutely nothing else to eat, I'd probably eat the entire thing. But I'm not in a good position to risk feeling ill.

Everything else, on the other hand, actually held up after 30 years! The oatmeal cookie bar tastes a tad bit like a dog treat but also has a sort of creamy, wheaty sweet flavor to it. It's actually really tasty! The freeze dried fruit mix is to die for. It's mildy crunchy/foamy and very sweet. The freeze dried cherries in it were a delight to chew on.

The orange mix tasted like a sweeter version of Tang, it was pretty tasty although I'd rather gave orange gatorade. The cocoa mix was perfectly creamy, sweet and chocolatey. The crackers were okay, but I wish they were more toasty like they were in the 1980s MREs. The grape jelly was still edible but tasted a bit fermented and not fresh at all.

All in all, it was worth trying!

Oh man yeah. This is one of my favourite brown bag MRE experiences. A shame about the main because it's a true star. Thanks for sharing!

I second Smitty! Had one of these last Monday and it was all perfect. Even the caramels were good and edible. Absolute treat.
About a week before that I also had a late 80s ham slice that was perfect. Even the orange nut cake was good. No weird tongue feeling or anything. I'd love to write up reviews but I have issues with image size on here which has made me give up on it a bit.

I've had similar issues here as well. I'd recommend you try uploading them to imgur, they do not have a limit on image sizes. If you're more technically aligned, you could try compressing them, although I think having high quality photos are important for documenting historical rations which is why I'd like to see the image size cap done away with.

SentientTootsieRoll wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:01 am

I've had similar issues here as well. I'd recommend you try uploading them to imgur, they do not have a limit on image sizes. If you're more technically aligned, you could try compressing them, although I think having high quality photos are important for documenting historical rations which is why I'd like to see the image size cap done away with.

Yeah good shout. I've tried finding a decent compression tool but haven't had much luck with it.
You used to be able to change the resolution in the android camera app.....but they've done away with that so now it's a pain to figure out!

Great review, thanks for sharing!