Here's a condensed summary data table.
For years, I've been reading vague info about "30 day buckets".
When they first came out, they were widely bashed because they had less calories per day than a starving refugee camp diet.
The outrage led to more honest labelling (Costco does listen to its customers!), and a gradual increase in the calories.Recently, both Costco and Sam's Club had sales on their buckets, and a friend agreed to order each for me, but expressed the opinion that that was a "lot of cheap food". I thought about it, agreed with him, and decided to just order the Sam's Club bucket, mainly because it came with a cheap water filter and less food (total calories). I had just finished sampling each of a Wise bucket so was expecting these to be even worse, so less food was a bonus.
One bucket is a good experiment, two might be crazy. 
Here's the box it came in (that's pink virtual spray paint on the label):
OPSEC-wise, this is nowhere near as obvious as the Alpine Aire 14 day pantry box, however it still suggests "food". As I mentioned in the AA-14 review, these probably can be shipped to a local store and picked up, so I'd appreciate a report if anyone does so.
As I mentioned in my loooooong summary thread/page, this was, by far, the toughest bucket to open.
Here's a closeup of the "pull" tab:
It's more a mild indentation than a real pull tab (both the AA and Wise buckets had nice real tabs).
Almost half an hour later, after finally remembering my "9/11" prybar (i.e. the prybar I bought after analyzing what prep changes I should make to improve my chances in a very bad office tower disaster), I finally got the thing open:
Phew!
It was the very first time I'd used my prybar, which made me feel all warm & fuzzy.
I've used full size crowbars, in my youth, but never this wee bar. The pink stuff is pink duct tape I had put on the sharp ends (it "lives" in the bottom of my workbag, so I wanted to protect other contents), and left it on to see how it would hold up to being used.
I had originally assumed it would take minimal effort once I started with the serious tool, but it still took much fiddling (remember, I have very weak near-crippled hands).
As you can barely see, the lid has a gasket, which is a nice touch. This bucket is definitely more critter proof than the other two (AlpineAire, Wise), though the others were good (and a lot easier to open!).
Bottom-line:
If you buy this to "store & forget", and ever have a bad enough disaster that you realize you'll probably need it, open it early, when you have more energy & time.
Here's a close up of the one punctured pouch, with my thumb for size reference:
Close up of the extremely meager printing, typical of each bag (just the product name and manufacture date, and reminder to remove O2 absorber):
Note that this arrived in late March, so it was extremely "fresh".
Here's the individual pouch size as compared to AlpineAire 14-day:
As I mentioned, there's only sixteen (16) pouches, with an average of about 3500 calories per pouch (equivalent to almost three MREs). That is a lot of calories per pouch! The pictures don't really convey how big these are. I'll weigh some as soon as I pick up my kilogram scale.
Fortunately, these have a very good recloseable gasket:
Trust me on this, very few people would want to eat 3500 calories worth of the same variety of these, straight days, with no other food. You really need to spread these out. Kudos to them for putting the effort into including a good self resealing opening.
The mylar on these is definitely heavier duty than any other FD product I've tried.
There are a total of eight varieties:
- Instant Potatoes - 30 servings in 2 bags
- Macaroni and Cheese – 30 servings in 3 bags (1 cheese, 2 macaroni)
- Creamy Potato Soup – 30 servings in 2 bags
- Cheesy Broccoli Rice – 30 servings in 2 bags
- Creamy Chicken with Rice – 30 servings in 2 bags
- Hearty Vegetable Blend – 30 servings in 1 bag
- Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal – 40 servings in 2 bags
- Morning Moo’s Low Fat Milk Alternative – 80 servings in 1 bag
All are 100% Vegetarian.
Ok, now let's eat some!
The "Creamy Chicken Rice" and "Potato Soup" sounded promising, and most different from the other varieties (e.g. oatmeal, mashed potatoes, mac&cheese).
I've had multiple servings/meals of each.
Creamy Chicken Rice:
contents of bag:
one serving, dry, in my Thermos food jar:
after rehydration/cooking:
closeup on spoon:
Taste Test:
Very disappointing!
The rice in this is not pre-cooked. I had never heard that this was an issue, and just assumed it was regular "add boiling water" type food. It really does require a proper boil then simmer for a while. Ew! That's like... like... real cookin'!
Despite being extremely firm, I was able to finish the first serving. It wasn't terrible, just very mediocre.
My next preparation attempt was using a full size Thermos, doing the more elaborate pre-heat with boiling water, and I left it to sit/cook for much longer. I made a double batch, and tried the first after about 1/2 to 1 hour, then let it sit another hour. Both were still underdone, "firm" rice.
I'm viewing this as something of a challenge, and will try again.
In my experience, rice is the most finicky Thermos cooking meal.
Potato Soup:
contents of bag:
one serving, dry, in my Thermos food jar:
after rehydration/cooking:
closeup on spoon:
Taste Test:
By the time I tried this, I had greatly diminished expectations, and was pleasantly surprised.
It rehydrated fully (no crunchy surprises), and tasted "ok". Not great, or even good, but was ok enough that I've eaten about four times as much of this as of the "rice" dish.
One major issue is that this is very high in sodium, and has a pronounced chemical aftertaste.
Bottom-line:
This is definitely not good tasting food.
It is less dreadful than I was braced for, and I could eat this once a day, even during "normal" times.
The main issue is that some of them are not pre-cooked, so this does require more fuel than the other kits I looked at.
This is the only kit that is not a clear thumbs up or down.
I would not recommend it as one's only "prep" food, however it is the cheapest of the kits I looked at, so I can understand somebody buying it as a quick & easy way to get started.
It has been my experience/observation that short term disasters are far more likely, and I can only see this as a long-term (pandemic/etc) prep, so I would strongly urge people to buy something more "ready to eat" to start with (like MREs, or even a case of cheap canned pasta), before even considering this.
Next:
I'll put up more pictures of the bucket, including the ingredients & nutritional content.
It may be some time before I try the other varieties, mainly because they're a lot of food, and most of them are generic (e.g. mash potatoes, mac&cheese).
