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Hey guys! I had to take a break from the IMPs for a bit. Mainly because I had two rations, the Spanish Lunch and the French, that I have been itching to try. So today, I tried the Spanish Individual Combat Ration, Lunch, Beef with Peas.

First, this ration reminded me of the story my dad once told me about the C Rations in Vietnam. This was my first experience with a canned ration, and I really enjoyed it. I think the Spanish go the extra mile with the toothpaste, hand sanitizer, foldable stove, stove fuel, and vitamin powder. However, they really fell short when it came to drink mixes as there were none. Now, I must say that I am still very new to this and the isotonic vitamin C powder may be a drink mix. If it is, please let me know. Also, I assume that the Spanish Military issues silverware to their soldiers. Or maybe the spoons come in the breakfast component. But for me, I thought they could have included a plastic spoon and a drink mix. Some coffee cream and sugar would have been nice as well.

Anyway, enough crying over what wasn't there. Let's talk about how great this ration was. The tuna I did not try. You could not should not would not make me eat it. Nope! This dude does NOT do tuna! Why you ask? Simple. Spent way too many days in the jungles of panama back in 91 where we did not get re supplied for several days and the six of us basically lived off of several cans of Sea Chicken one of my team mates brought along. That and some other fine foods I will never eat again such as snake, Beattle, and monkeys. So no! No tuna for dear ole Bob.

First I put the stove together. If you ever get your hands on one of these rations, do NOT throw away the contents sheet until AFTER the stove is put together. Even with the instructions it was like trying to break a steel ball with a glass hammer. I was about to go full Conan the Barbarian and throw the cans onto the fire pit when I finally figured the thing out. After I finally got the fuel lit, I boiled up some water for the vegetable soup. At first look, I thought it had some freeze dried corn in it. They turned out to be bits of crouton and they really added to the soup. It was mostly broth with tiny shaving of vegetables in the bottom, but the taste was beyond good. The smell of it cooking had me on the edge of my seat waiting to try it. It reminded me of Italian Wedding Soup. A rich bold flavor highlighted with several different herbs and spices. It was very tasty. If any of you get these rations and don't want the soup, send it my way. I would love to have a couple packets of it in my kit the next time I head to the woods. The down side to the soup is that it had a lot of sodium in it. When I finished it, I chased it down with an entire bottle of water.

The fruit cocktail was really nice. It was basically a can of del monte like you would get at your local grocery story. I would have preferred more peaches in it, but it was a nice blend of peaches, pears, and the occasional cherry.

The main was simply awesome! The beef was very tender and juicy, albeit a little heavy on the salt. The peas were light and moist. The beef reminded me of a perfectly cooked juicy chunk of fatty brisquit. If your doctor has you on a low salt no fat diet, don't even look at this meal. I could feel my cholesterol levels going up just reading the label.

I did not try the pate with pepper. I decided to save it for another time when I have some crackers or hardtack. I threw it into my kit of ration extras. In a couple weeks I am heading up into the woods for a three day solo trek thru the smokies. Planning on using the left overs from all these reviews during that trip.

Hope you enjoyed this review. I know I enjoyed eating the ration.

Thanks for the review Bob. I love tuna, but I can understand your hate towards it. You know tuna and mercury problem, that's another reason not to eat it.

One thing in my opionion would be much better for the review, when you take a picture of the ration box try to geet it from more distance with something near it so we can feel the size of it. All other was awesome as always, you are getting better with every new review. Adding this story from Army days was great addon to overall review, but geez man I don't know could I eat monkey even if I had to

Thanks for the feedback brother. And you are right. Showing it compared to something is a great idea. I will start doing that in the future. I also need to figure out how to put the pics in the review itself instead of down below. I will stick your name on the can of Tuna. Next trade we do I will send it along as an extra. This was a pretty good ration so I hate to see any part of it go to waste when it could be enjoyed by someone from this forum.

A lot to learn. And feedback is always appreciated. Really loving these rations!

Great review mate. The Spanish Rations do look really good. The trip up into the Smokies, is it a part of the Appalacian trail or a separte trail?
Yowie

Yowie wrote:Great review mate. The Spanish Rations do look really good. The trip up into the Smokies, is it a part of the Appalacian trail or a separte trail?
Yowie

It's separate from the AT. I will step off at Murphy NC and head into the woods. wI'll make my way down to the valley and back up to the next ridge then back again. Should be able to do it in 3 to 4 days. This June I am taking a bunch of guys for a ten day trek on the AT, but we will be on the southern Virginia leg of the trail.

Great review - looks tasty!

BlackDogBob wrote:... the isotonic vitamin C powder may be a drink mix.

It is indeed - similar to the isotonic drinks in Chinese emergency rations. It's a somewhat thin gatorade-ish drink.

BlackDogBob wrote:I also need to figure out how to put the pics in the review itself instead of down below.

When you add them as attachments and they all finish uploading there's a "Place Inline" button for each picture. Go to where you want the picture to show up in the text, and click place inline for the picture you want. I suggest giving it a shot with this one (you can use the edit link at the upper right in your initial post). Get it open to edit, and then add the photos one at a time. Try the preview button instead of submit to see if it's working the way you want it to (the pictures tend to be ordered differently than expected so compare filenames). When you've got it, submit.

wow, thats an almost exact copy of the meal I had, except I had sardines in tomato sauce instead of tuna and meatballs with peas instead of brisket. Same fruit cocktail, same pate....and same reactions to most of it. And, I cheated with the stove, I had watched Kiwi's fiasco with his, so I went in prepared. And I experienced the same issue with lack of utensils.

Wait til you try the Pate, you will love it. I honestly think it beats out the french hands down. But, you really need the spanish crackers to fully enjoy it. I'll look around and see if I still have some.

Awesome review. Looking forward to the rest.

Video is finally online!

BlackDogBob wrote:I will stick your name on the can of Tuna. Next trade we do I will send it along as an extra. This was a pretty good ration so I hate to see any part of it go to waste when it could be enjoyed by someone from this forum.

Well I wanted to help and close this review as a thank you. I took Spanish ration tuna and Rio Mare tuna to make light dinner tonight, I really love tuna and this was another great experience to try canned spanish army tuna along with the civilian one.



Difference is not only in size but spanish army one is in vegetable oil, Rio Mare is with olive oil. I understand why most people just poor the oil out before eating tuna, but if tuna is in olive oil like Rio Mare then it's a blasphemy. There is nothing better then taking some bread and dip it in olive oil.



Spanish ration tuna is a bit harder and crumbly compared to Rio Mare tuna, also it's kind of bland and the taste isn't that strong as it is in Rio Mare products. But nonetheless I liked it, I like tuna so... it's nothing that some black pepper and few drops of lemon could not boost up. All in all decent meal, clean cut white tuna meat.



Again, thanks Bob for remembering and sending this to me, you rock man...

Man that's great! I really hate to see portions of the rations go to waste, so it was awesome to be able to send it to someone who could eat it and enjoy it. Thanks for adding it here to the review. It really completes it.