So, I shall start with Menu 1-Beans and Weiners...
So we have the Entree, and the fruit. In this case, Pineapple Tidbits
Bread, Blueberry/Apple cereal, Instant Coffee x2, Hot Chocolate, and a Sports drink in a flavor i've never heard of before, Ice. Can't wait to try it.
The usual Acoutremon....Gum, mint, matches, salt n pepper,tabasco, wet nap, toothpick, Bev Bag, nappy, Peanut Butter x2, Sugar x2, and whitener x2.
The coffee with a Sugar and Whitener
Hot chocolate
Both, mixed with Hot water
The hot chocolate was a run-of-the-mill flavor. Nothing special, just a good cup of hot chocolate. The coffee, on the other hand, was a little deeper in flavor than the Freeze-dried you usually find in MRE's. Had more of a medium/dark roast flavor, reminiscent of a good Columbian blend.
My druthers, if I was eating this as a breakfast, would have been to heat about 2/3rds of a canteen cup of water, then dump in both coffee's, both sugars, both whiteners, and the hot chocolate. One big breakfast drink, a Camp Mocha. Would be interesting to see how it compares to the MRE version I make with only 1 of everything. (Hmm...I do have another breakfast menu to try, I may have to do a comparison...
)The Bread....Petit Pain...
Sliced in half with Peanut butter on one of the halves.
The bread was dry, but with a good crumb. Well defined cell texture, good crust. Went well with the PB, but would probably be better toasted with honey as a breakfast item.
The cereal..
Not a big fan of oatmeal, I usually eat it dry to maximize flavor. This one was even bland dry, with a bitter aftertaste. Not sure if it was something to do with the powdered milk or preservatives, or the dried fruit. Maybe adding warm water and a packet of honey would have helped...
Ice drink mix.
The drink itself is a great blue color, but the flavor was indistinct sweet. No real identifying flavor, and the sweetness was almost over the top. Great for caloric content in high activity environs, which is what it's made for.
the pineapple tidbits
Again, less a pineapple flavor, more a sweetness with a hint of pineapple. Plus, the ascorbic acid made it look darker than it was. Sent a pic to a friend, his first thought was it was peaches...
The beans with Weiners
Not bad, less sauce and bigger chunks of meat than the american version. Tabasco really did help, but not too bad on it's own.
My lunch...
Overall, it was a very satisfying meal. Very filling, even without eating all of the cereal. My hats off to the Baxter people, their Beans with Weiners was closer to my homemade version than you find on any of the supermarket shelves. Very impressed with the coffee and bread, Can say I prefer both over their American MRE counterparts. My main question would be if any of the meals come with a packaged cheese like the MRE's, because I could easily see cutting a pocket in the bread, filling it with cheese, and toasting it over a fire for a field grilled cheese sandwich... (another idea for a future review...
) Another thing I must say I am a big fan of now, is the beverage bag. It made mixing a lot easier, so much so that I rinsed and dried it out, and stuck it back in my pack. It's definitely better than any of the bags offered with the MRE's, even if the main object of the Hot Beverage Bag is to be able to heat water in a FRH.
