Ameriqual APack - 9120 - Pasta with Garden Vegetables

[mjwise]

Hello all,

I picked a half-set of 6 mispacked APacks from theepicenter last year. Turns out my "mispacked" meal (a Pasta with Garden Vegetables in Tomato Sauce) from the lot was one that was quite a bit older than the others, with the outer pouch showing 9120 and all the inner retorts being older than that.



Here are the contents other than the entree:



Here's the entree heating. After 10 minutes, I had a scorching hot entree. It was nice to have a premeasured quantity of salt water to activate the heater. Easy!



I would rate the flavor of this entree as very good. Not too salty and not just mush. There was no metallic or artificial flavor. The vegetables and pasta still had some firmness left and tasted like more than just tomato sauce. The tomato sauce itself was mild and not too acidic. I would have liked some kind of protein in here (the calorie count especially of this entree is quite low), but I guess that's what the peanut butter packet was for.






Most of the snacks/sides I think you all likely recognized (peanut butter, crackers, etc.) but I had never actually had the osmotic raisins before.....they were TERRIBLE. Easily the worst MRE side I've ever tasted - completely artificial and chemical tasting, extremely strong metallic/chemical aftertaste, and with a bizarre non-raisin-like texture even. I actually threw out half the bag, and I hate throwing out any food! I'd really have to be in dire straits to eat this rubbish.



Thankfully the fig bar was still fresh and delicious - much less of a cake-like exterior than commercial fig newtons. The round shortbread cookie was a great dessert:



All around, a very good experience. If you have a source for Ameriqual APacks, pick up a box and try them (if you can look past the awful raisins.)

[Ruleryak]

Great review, thanks for the pictures!

Ameriqual A-Pack meals I'd only ever consider a last resort in a bug-in or wait-it-out style disaster where you're not going to be exerting yourself as much. They're rather low on calories and protein when compared to USGI meals. Another downside factor for the A-Packs is an insane lack of variety. Every single meal comes with the fig bar, crackers and peanut butter, shortbread cookie and awful raisins. At least with a case of Menu C's (if you're looking for a comparably priced civilian ration) you're getting varied snacks, deserts and sides whereas with A-Pack meals the only thing at all that changes meal to meal is the entree. In my opinion Ameriqual is being very very lazy with their meals. As a major military contractor they could easily vary the sides a bit meal to meal.

[mjwise]

Great review, thanks for the pictures!

Ameriqual A-Pack meals I'd only ever consider a last resort in a bug-in or wait-it-out style disaster where you're not going to be exerting yourself as much. They're rather low on calories and protein when compared to USGI meals. Another downside factor for the A-Packs is an insane lack of variety. Every single meal comes with the fig bar, crackers and peanut butter, shortbread cookie and awful raisins. At least with a case of Menu C's (if you're looking for a comparably priced civilian ration) you're getting varied snacks, deserts and sides whereas with A-Pack meals the only thing at all that changes meal to meal is the entree. In my opinion Ameriqual is being very very lazy with their meals. As a major military contractor they could easily vary the sides a bit meal to meal.

Thanks for reading my review. You'll be happy to know that I checked the 2010 and 2011 production APack meals I have, and the raisins do not appear in any of the 2010 menus and only 2 of the 2011 menus. They sure do love the peanut butter and crackers though! Sopakco seems to have the most MRE-like civilian product right now with real sides and more variety from meal to meal. I'm more inclined to just buy individual elements I like online in the future though.