Oldschool MRE Snack Review

[cavguy]

1st off let me say thanks to Steve1989 for sending me these goodies to try out! Without his help I am afraid I would have never seen another chocolate covered oatmeal cookie!

1. Good old gorilla cookies! Yes that is what they were called in the Army, it was way before my time but what the heck lets give them a try. Date Of Package was sometime in the early 80's.

Appearance: Two stuck together cookies. Waxy chocolate coating. I used a knife to pry the cookies apart. Instead of my "gorilla" grip.
Smell: Smelled just like the later chocolate covered oatmeal cookie! Very pleasant.
Taste: Exactly like the chocolate covered oatmeal cookie! Excellent cookie covered in confection taste, no bad aftertaste. I ate the whole thing.
Conclusion: Yes, amazingly it was good perfectly edible and tasted good!

2. Next, Cookie Bar Chocolate Covered. The best of the best... well almost. Date of package was *1981* I think

Appearance: A rather good sized chocolate covered cookie bar. Nothing out of the normal. Waxy Chocolate again..
Smell: Slight odor of something odd, not spoiled, not a repulsing smell but just smelled off.
Taste: Took a small bite, swallowed and was hit with a weird aftertaste... Yes, the old MRE taste - not rotten, but just a something is not right taste. So in the trash it went.
Conclusion: This cookie was bad!

3. Chocolate Nut cake. The holy grail... Well back in the 1990's at least. I think this was packaged in 1983.

Appearance: Coloring looks bad, very unappealing. Greasy substance left in packaging.
Smell: Slight resemblance to the old nut cakes but something is not right.
Taste: Edible, at least until you swallow it... The nuts and whatever is in this have spoiled. My tongue said no way, got numb and that was when I knew it was time for the trash. I cannot taste the chocolate at all. Tasted NOTHING like what I remember the old nut cakes tasting like
Conclusion: Spoiled beyond belief. Drink water and drive on...

4. Maple Nut Cake, I think this was packaged in 1985

Appearance: Coloring looks bad, very unappealing. Greasy substance left in packaging.
Smell: Hint of maple. Smells better than the chocolate nut cake.
Taste: Evil! Tongue got numb again, said no way, in the trash it goes.
Conclusion: This is spoiled too... Will I ever get to enjoy another beloved nut cake??

[steve1989]

Oh, Cavguy - I am so sorry your nut cakes weren't good! I promise I will find you that 1991 chocolate nut cake that I have been trying to find - also, try out one of that 1994 or 1991 chocolate covered cookie I'd sent - I am almost certain those are fresh! The one you opened was the one I wasn't too sure about because I had 5 from that batch - 3 were good 1 was exactly how you described yours which means only 3 out of 5 from that batch were good!

I will always keep my eye out for the vintage snacks for you, Mreheater72 (I sent him nutcakes along with many other items but darn customs seized the package and hopefully they will send it to him soon) and some of you other loyal MREinfo fellas who likes the oldie goodies.

Boy it sure is strange that some of those old nut cakes hold up & some don't! I still think it has to do with the temperatures and storage locations.

I'm going to find more stuff for ya good soon Cavguy - and next time I'll be diligent in making absolutely sure it's fresh!

Still kinda neat to know this stuff DOES eventually spoil! Unfortunately, it doesn't hold up forever!

Scary about the numb tongue thing! I hope you're okay, man!

[cavguy]

Haha, yea its all good. Its always a crap shoot when you deal with vintage goodies! I think the numb tongue is a warning, "you might not want to eat this" its my "Spidey" sense. I have a cast iron stomach from my time in the Army, I never get sick from eating anything (knock on wood).

Thanks again for your contributions, its always fun to reflect on vintage MRE's.

[housil]

This chocolate cover cookie brings back lot´s of good memories when we got them from the troops as kids!

[steve1989]

Hey Cavguy, I had a nutcake back in 2010 (Chocolate nut cake as a matter of fact) back in 2010 and It was amazing..! I also had a Maple Nut Cake in 2011 and that one gave me the numb tongue thing like you had - I went in the mirror and saw that my tongue was so swollen and I was shooting out saliva like a spitting cobra! It was pretty messed up and up there on my biggest spoiled mre scares... I've gotten food poisoning quite a few times now and am surprised that I still mess around with the old stuff..! I must be nuts! lol


And Housil - that is so cool you were given MRE treats back in the day from the troops! I'll bet that stuff all tasted much better then than it does now!


Cavguy, I still think it's too cool you did this review! All hail the old-school MRE desserts! BTW, that 1991 Chocolate Nut Cake is on it's way to ya, just sent it today so hopefully that one is fresh unlike this you you reviewed!

[housil]

I'll bet that stuff all tasted much better then than it does now!

For us, anything American was so great. You showed everything you got to your friends - even just the paper toilet....

I recall another great candy, wrapped in white, "waxy" paper that came in the crackers can. There were also two candy´s in a silver tin foil and best of all, the cooca...

[rationtin440]

Housil, I recall what you mentioned they were the MCI toffee disks wrapped in the foil and the waxy paper was something called "vanilla fudge disc" if I recall correctly. In the field, waaaaay long before we got the first MREs (it seemed) we were mixing the cocoa powder and the instant coffee to make mocha. Of course I instantly loved the gorilla cookies from the brown bag MREs, eventhough I cannot say they were better than the MCI poundcake or candy disks. Those MCI desserts and any canned fruit were currency in the field, just like in Vietnam.

[rationtin440]

cavguy wrote "Conclusion: This is spoiled too... Will I ever get to enjoy another beloved nut cake??"

Of course you will; as soon as they figure out how to extend the shelf/storage life of nuts----I don't recall ever having a real good experience with those nutcakes, I never got sick from them but the aftertaste and smell even from relatively "current" production ones was always there. If I recall right didn't they also have an orange nut cake? I may be mistaken, I know they had an orange nutcake/roll in the MCIs and they always tasted like they forgot to remove the orange rind, bitter citrus-like aftertaste that was not from the nuts, both MCI and MRE nut cakes always seemed to have a very strong smell of nuts that were shall we say no longer fresh My apologies for wandering off-topic for a second, I remember we used to joke about smelling "bitter almonds" in regard to the MREs and MCIs, but for those here who had military service, smelling "bitter almonds" in the field is kinda like smelling fresh cut hay or grass in the desert-----danger Will Robinson!

[cavguy]

Here we go again, a special shout out goes out to Steve1989 for his generous donations to science!

1. 1991 Chocolate Nut Cake

Appearance: Coloring looks good, however the mixture looks inconsistent with what I remember, appears to be excess sugar on this nut cake as I can see the sugar sparkling.
Smell: Slight resemblance to the old nut cake, but it has lost most of its smell. Packaged/ processed MRE smell is present though.
Taste: Took a small bite, tasted ok. Not what I remember, but I guess with age it has lost most of its flavor. Next, I took a bigger bite, after that I could feel my tongue tingle a bit, so all in all I ate half then threw the rest away.
Conclusion: This nutcake was edible (in am emergency situation... at least), it tasted almost like sugary dough void of any flavor though...

2. 1995 Chocolate Covered Oatmeal Cookie

Appearance: A block of oatmeal covered in shiny chocolate.
Smell: Odd MRE smell, I think this was from the packaging and not the cookie. Smells kind of like recycled paper, I recall some of the older MRE's smelling like this due to the plastic or packaging.
Taste: Tastes just like I remember, a sugary oatmeal block covered in a nice chocolate flavored confection.
Conclusion: Excellent edible cookie! It seems the great majority of these cookies at least in my experience, seem to stand the test of time!

3. Date unknown Candy Chocolate Disk, Toffee Enriched, Sweet

Appearance: A round chunk of chocolate wrapped in foil.
Smell: When unwrapped, this item actually lacked a smell.
Taste: Took a small bite, I could actually taste the toffee bits and they tasted good, however then the overwhelming taste of the "old" chocolate hit me, it seems the chocolate has gone bad. Note that, I have never tasted one of these before, so it could just be that the chocolate had an odd taste to begin with. To be clear the taste did not make it inedible, it just left an odd aftertaste, not something I want to snack on...
Conclusion: Possibly edible. But not appealing at all. The toffee bits however, had a decent taste. In the trash it went.

[rationtin440]

First off, my sincere apologies to cavguy; looking at my reply about the nutcake, I realize I may have sounded terse or sarcastic which was certainly not my intent sir. I have always had the opinion that the nutcakes were a cool concept but they just never tasted "right" to me, like something was always off. As for those toffee enriched chocolate disks, let me say from experience that there was probably nothing more delicious in the field, or for clever troops they'd melt it into boiling water to "enhance" the coffee and cocoa powder after saving it from other MCIs (one of my vehicle crew's favorite recipes). However once they start to turn, nothing in the world tastes worse except maybe a spoiled MRE orange nutcake.