SOPAKCO MRE Review 12-2008

[tthompso]

I am just now getting into the emergency/disaster preparedness mode and thought I would add my two cents as I try civilian MRE products before stocking up on any particular brand.

I ordered a single SOPAKCO MRE with FRH from The Ready Store online and received a SPAGHETTI WITH MEAT AND SAUCE pack. I could not find a date stamp on the individual pouch, maybe the carton would have listed it. If this means anything to other forum folks the entree was stamped with
8283 2 1 22 1 22:20.

Contents included:
Spaghetti entree
Fried Rice side dish
Wheat Snack Bread
Oatmeal Cookie
Peanut Butter spread
Sqwincher Mixed Berry fruit drink mix
Accessory pack (coffee, sugar, creamer, salt, pepper, moist towlette & spoon
Flame-less ration heater

Spaghetti Entree:
After heating the spaghetti for about 15 minutes using the FRH I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the pouch. If you have ever had a can of Campbells SpaghettiOs then you have had this entree. Smelled great, was completely appetizing and the serving size of 8oz was filling. I ate it right out of the bag.

Fried Rice side dish:
Just like the MREInfo tag line says, "Everything tastes good when you are hungry." I tried to use the remaining FRH to heat the fried rice pouch and got luke warm results. The rice is spicy which I like, mostly a peppery flavor. The texture is on the firm/cardboard side, but tasty and edible.

Wheat Snack Bread and Peanut Butter spread:
This flatbread was soft and dense (if that makes sense). Not a cracker, nor brittle. Tastes like dense/chewy slice of bread. It is firm enough that it takes the peanut butter spread without bending or breaking...a filling snack. The peanut butter spread is a large serving, easily enough to use on two snack breads and very potent flavor-wise. If you like intense peanut butter taste, stickiness and smell then this is perfect.

Note- I am a big guy and I was getting full at this point...

Oatmeal Cookie:
Not a chewy soft cookie, more like a Mrs Field's cookie in a workshop vending machine. Very dry, somewhat brittle but all in all a big cookie.

Sqwincher fruit drink mix:
Basically a little single packet of gatorade mix. Has enough flavor to mix with 20oz (possibly more) of water. I can still taste the sugar on my teeth.

Accessory pack:
Won't go into detail except for one thing. People seem to care about the spoons in these packs and an article I read on MREInfo said that SOPAKCO was using the military brown spoon. I got a great big full size plastic spoon, sort of off-white in color. So if the whole spoon thing matters to you, then there you go.

Overall, this SOPAKCO meal was huge. If I was stuck without power or access to a store I would be just fine with two of these a day and honestly if I spread it out I could do one meal per day. Not rated for a ton of calories, but you could easily have you coffee in the morning, the snack bread/condiment for breakfast, the side dish and drink mix for lunch and then the entree for dinner with the cookie as a late night treat.

I'll be getting some MENU C MRE's from MRE Depot soon and will post again about them.

[sag45]

ttompso, I'm a newbie also, but this site has lots of info and I have learned a lot about the MRE's just wandering abouts on it. Really glad I found it right away on the internet. Look or search for "date codes" in this site to get a better explaination about what those numbers mean. You are most interested in the first four numbers as in your post -- the "8283" which means: the first number is the year 2008, the three following numbers are the day of the year that the product was produced or packaged, so that is the 283rd day of the year or roughly sometime in September of this year. Just read on and have fun with the MRE's. I would assume the other numbers thereafter describe what plant or company made it, what shift made it, what batch was used, what line or equipment they used, etc.

[kman]

Welcome to the forums, tthompso. Nice review. That Spaghetti entree has to be one of the best ones around.

As for your problems heating up the fried rice, here's a suggestion - after you put the main entree in the FRH and stuff everything back into the entree box to heat up, take the side dish pouch and cram it into the same box underneath the heater. It'll be a tight fit but that side dish will get a good deal of heat.