Ración Individual De Combate - Spanish Ration (pt. 2)

[kelly1244]

Hello everyone!

I posted the first part of this review in the wrong area, so I'm posting the second part in it's proper place.

I managed to get my hands on a few Spanish rations, figured this might be a good place to post my "2 cents" For this particular narrative, I'll be discussing a lunch ration, Menu B4

Menu Information: Lunch B, Menu No. 4

- 1 Bag of vegetable instant soup (20g)
- 1 Tin of beef with peas (200g)
- 1 Tin of white tuna fish in vegetable oil (115g)
- 1 Tin of fruit cocktail in syrup (190g)
- 1 Tin of pate (70g)
- Miscellaneous sundries (water purification tabs, fuel tabs, isotonic drink mix, gum, matches, stove, tissues, toothpaste, hand sanitizer)

As it arrived:

For this go'round, I'll be discussing the bolded items. The items in red are items that were in part 1, found on the International Ration board.

The leftovers:

That oval, flat can is the tuna, packaged in oil:

I also managed to get my hands on some crackers, better known as "Pan Galletta":

So for the actual review.

The tuna was great! It tasted similar to what you can buy here in US markets, but it was just slightly different. To me, it tasted a little bit saltier. I'm admittedly a salt lover, so I had no issues with this. I also liked the balance of oil to fish, as it wasn't over saturated. Fish didn't have any metallic taste.

The crackers really helped with the tuna, as tuna on it's own can be sort of bland. I admittedly used a little bit of mayo towards the end, that goes back to my love of salt The crackers didn't have much of a taste at all, to be honest. But they weren't bad. Still had a nice crunch, despite their beat up look. Believe it or not, this half of the pack was actually in tact, compared to the first half (crumbs). I would have preferred something with a little more flavor, but that's purely a personal preference.

The water purification tabs did their job and did not leave any noticeable after-taste. No complaints here.
Fuel tabs and stove did their job, used them in the previous (part 1) ration heating. They definitely had a different odor than the Esbit tabs that I'm used to.

I wasn't overly thrilled with the drink mix. It really lacks any type of flavor, and it's definitely not sweet. I have a feeling it's not meant as an actual DRINK per-se (it appears to be a supplement), but I just didn't care for the taste. I wouldn't be eager to drink this if I had to.

Still waiting for an opportunity to try the fruit cocktail and pate. I've never had pate before so I'm not quite sure what to expect there, haha. My family is French, I've been around it plenty, just never had the urge to try it. I'm hoping it's something I can get down with.

I hope this wasn't too boring! Thanks!

[parafireboy]

Thanks for sharing, and nice review! I just recently tried pate for the first time myself. It was ok, just a little different at first if you've never had it, but it was good. The drink mix in the Spanish rations is different for sure. I had a Spanish ration months ago, and I think the best way to get the drink/vitamin supplement down is to mix it in a very small amount of water like a shot, because the taste, well, is lacking in any kind of taste at all. Glad you had the crackers to go with it! I've always thought it was odd they didn't include the crackers in the individual ration.

Thanks for taking the time to share this with everyone!

[Ruleryak]

Thanks for sharing your review! Don't see too many folks go as far as trying the water purification tablets, thanks for that! The drink in these reminds me a little of the also-not-that-good drink mix in the Chinese Emergency Rations (the ones with compressed blocks, not the self heating meals). Cool find getting the biscuits to go with them.