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I've been eyeing the 2014 Canadian IMP that I had on my shelf, and finally couldn't resist opening it. What followed was truly a roller coaster of an experience.

The IMP had a great variety of contents. Overall it was better in terms of variety, flavor and freshness (with one exception as you will see) than the French ration I recently reviewed , although that may be an unfair comparison, as that was an R.I.E. not a full ration.

Contents: A Caramilk bar
Strawberry Applesauce
Chicken Rice (side dish)
A hamburger bun
Sloppy Joe filling
Peanut butter
Wildberry yogurt protein drink
2 Watermelon sports drink packets
instant coffee
mints
accessories: spoon, napkin, red hot sauce, wet wipe, beverage bag, creamer, and sugar

I started with the Caramilk Thick bar - fresh, great taste and very substantial.
Then I boiled some water and tried the chicken rice. A bit salty, but good chicken flavor, and once again, very substantial.
Then I decided to try the sloppy joe. I noticed that the roll was a bit dry.
I heated the sloppy joe filling, and tried a bit with the spoon - wow was that good. A little sweet, and more vegetables - onions peppers and tomato bits - than I usually see in sloppy joe mix. I piled it on the bun and dug in. The dryness of the bun took away from it, but overall it was very good - until disaster struck. Almost.

You can see from the picture that bits of the dry bun were flaking off. One piece flaked off as I was taking a bite, and went partway down my throat, which caused me to cough. And of course, when you cough, you often breathe in deeply involuntarily, which was when a larger piece of the bun broke off, along with some sloppy joe mix, and lodged itself in my throat.
What followed was a frantic 30 seconds or so (although it felt like 20 minutes) of trying to breath out hard to dislodge the dried bun, all the while thinking frantically "I can't believe my wife is going to find me dead on the floor because I ate an IMP."

Finally, success, followed by another 10 minutes of coughing to get the remnants of the Sloppy Joe and bun out of my throat and lungs. Obviously I survived to review it, but that experience was very unpleasant.

I called it a night at that point, and picked up the next day in my office. I had brought a few of the IMP components to work to break up the day.

The coffee was great - the best instant coffee I've had to date. Strong, but not too bitter, and smooth. The protein drink was also very good - great berry aroma, nice and thick, a mild berry flavor. It was a bit chalky, but no more so than other protein drinks I've had, ration or non-ration versions.
The strawberry applesauce was also very good. It seemed a bit dark (oxidized) but tasted just fine.
And the watermelon sports drink, as I've posted elsewhere, was absolutely fantastic, the best beverage powder mix I've had yet. Best of all, I got two in this IMP! This almost made up for the IMP nearly killing me the day before. Overall, a great ration, and I won't hold my near death experience against our Canadian friends.

Wow! Nice review and very thrilling story too!

Now you know why the French call it a "pain hamburger".

For future reference:
http://www.wikihow.com/Perform-the-Heim ... n-Yourself

Good review! I'm glad it was unsuccessful in it's efforts to off you!

In true Canadian fashion, did the IMP apologize and say it was sorry afterwards?

I accepted the double watermelon sports drink as an apology.

They should at least put warning notices on all the IMPs.

Wow... what a scary but happy ending story... watermelon drinks sounds good right about now.

mahalo