1996 RCW 5A & B, Spaghetti With Meat and Sauce

[Jim_M1988]

Back again! I have wanted to try one of these out for a long time but never had a "spare" outside of my collection it's taken me a while to make the plunge!
In this instance Part A was part of a trade I did with AULD and is produced by Wornick and part B was gifted by ViperGTS to complete the set and was produced by Right Away Foods. As there's a lot of food in these I ate it over a couple of days and found the contents to be in great shape, the main to be very similar to the MCW Spaghetti - which I love!

Part A contents:
Oatmeal, Instant
Nut Raisin Mix
Cocoa Beverage Powder
Beverage Base, Apple Cider
Fruit Bar
Soup, Instant
Crackers
Accessory Packet
Spoon

Part B contents:
Spaghetti With Meat and Sauce
Oatmeal Cookie and Granola Bar
Powder Beverage Base, Orange
Brownie, Chocolate covered
Tea Mix, Instant
Candy
Spoon

I set into this one Sunday evening so ate it all out of order, but had the first meal as the Spaghetti, Lemon Tea and Oatmeal cookie & Granola Bar. The main in this is big at 96g before you add approx 12oz of water. This smelt great and hydrated really well, I honestly couldn't tell the difference between this and the MCW version.
I'm a big fan of the Oatmeal bars too which I had tried previously as survival rations. The Lemon Tea is also a favourite, so this was a great meal!
Hot sauce could give some nice variety over time but I understand why it isn't included in such a ration and personally found the Spaghetti to be nicely salted and well seasoned. 10/10 to the chef!

I followed up the next morning with the breakfast, Instant Oatmean, Strawberry and Cream. Delicious! It hydrated into a perfect consistency and tasted fantastic. I had it along with the Fruit Bars, which were blueberry and a packet of the Cocoa. The blueberry fruit bars were a first for me and honestly reminded me of a mix between our UK Alpen bars and the Fig bars that you find in US rations. Very tasty!

The rest of the contents I had sporadically throughout the week. I had the soup and crackers as a snack and then later in the week the chocolate brownie which I was hoping to eat with the coffee - classic spoiled red tasters choice, the only item to have not made it! The brownie was nice, probably the freshest tasting that I've had to date.
The orange beverage mix was also in good shape, and a much larger quantity than in a standard brown bag MRE. All in all this RCW has to be one of the best vintage rations that I've tried. The contents was nearly all in great shape and all very edible!

[Jim_M1988]

And some more snaps:

[norge]

Just love it

cheers ken

[ViperGTS]

I'm glad it went to a good home, another user gifted it to me as well. I've been waiting to see the pics on this one. I'm still unsure if I will ever open the other ones I have. Thanks for all the pics.

[parafireboy]

Great review!