How did you discover MREs?
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deanopilot
- Posts: 121
- Joined: Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:07 pm
- Location: Michigan
Excellent site kman. Been perusing for several weeks. Glad you have incorporated the forums. Got started w/MRE's in the early '90's when a good friend and Desert Storm vet shared a few with me. Interest was renewed recently when my neighbor's kid (Enduring Freedom/Bronze Star) brought a few over for xmas. My 6 y/o daughter loves them and gets a big kick out of eating dehydrated pears without reconstituting them first, yikes! The wife thinks I'm nuts.
I've ordered a few cases of the sopakco sure paks thru your suggestion of Meyers Custom Supply, but ended up with a dozen clam chowders and cheese tortellinis, not my favorites. I keep a couple in my flight bag just in case. Kind of defeats the whole purpose of ready food reserve to not have the FRHeaters too, but I can't get through TSA security with the heaters or matches.
Thanks for the great site and I'm sure that you are going to have hundreds of folks signing up in the next few months.
I've ordered a few cases of the sopakco sure paks thru your suggestion of Meyers Custom Supply, but ended up with a dozen clam chowders and cheese tortellinis, not my favorites. I keep a couple in my flight bag just in case. Kind of defeats the whole purpose of ready food reserve to not have the FRHeaters too, but I can't get through TSA security with the heaters or matches.
Thanks for the great site and I'm sure that you are going to have hundreds of folks signing up in the next few months.
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DangerousDave
- Posts: 1148
- Joined: Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:48 pm
- Location: Virginia
I hate to tell you, Deanopilot>
But they have'nt included dehydrated Strawberry, Fruit Mix, Pears and Peaches for a long time. You must have got some older MRE,s. They all were excellent though. I'd save up about 3 or 4, and reconstitute, and eat them all at one time. Big fruit salad in a bag.
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deanopilot
- Posts: 121
- Joined: Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:07 pm
- Location: Michigan
DD:
Yeah, the dehydrated pears were circa '92, but they were excellent. Just ask my little girl. And no, I wouldn't try out decades old mre's on my 6 year old daughter, just the dehydrated stuff after I taste tested it first. She eats and loves the new stuff. Favorite of the week: Orange Base Powder and peaches (the wet stuff).
deano.
Yeah, the dehydrated pears were circa '92, but they were excellent. Just ask my little girl. And no, I wouldn't try out decades old mre's on my 6 year old daughter, just the dehydrated stuff after I taste tested it first. She eats and loves the new stuff. Favorite of the week: Orange Base Powder and peaches (the wet stuff).
deano.
Hi all ,
Greeting ! This is my first time log into this forum , nice to meet you all ! (sorry for my poor english as my native language is chinese)
My story of discoering the MREs are a very long story . Few years ago me and my friends goto wild camp , and because of an unbeliveable reason we lost all the food . This is a cold morning , and all of us suffer from hunger and the cold weather . So I swear that I will not let me suffer from that anymore (though it still happens to me ...) .
Then one day , I know a guy from internet , and we chat about the ration . He told me that in US army there were some instant-heat ration pack called MRE , so I follow his clue and I found out all the necessary information from here .
Lucky enough that when I try to bid the ration , my friend is in Virginia and going to come back to Hong Kong (where we live) , so I ask him to take a few pack for me .
So that's my story about my 1st batch of MREs . Thanks for looking at my message .
Kurz Cheng
Greeting ! This is my first time log into this forum , nice to meet you all ! (sorry for my poor english as my native language is chinese)
My story of discoering the MREs are a very long story . Few years ago me and my friends goto wild camp , and because of an unbeliveable reason we lost all the food . This is a cold morning , and all of us suffer from hunger and the cold weather . So I swear that I will not let me suffer from that anymore (though it still happens to me ...) .
Then one day , I know a guy from internet , and we chat about the ration . He told me that in US army there were some instant-heat ration pack called MRE , so I follow his clue and I found out all the necessary information from here .
Lucky enough that when I try to bid the ration , my friend is in Virginia and going to come back to Hong Kong (where we live) , so I ask him to take a few pack for me .
So that's my story about my 1st batch of MREs . Thanks for looking at my message .
Kurz Cheng
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Hell Devil
- Posts: 30
- Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2005 7:41 pm
- Location: Northeastern US
My first experience with MREs was when I bought a few from the local Army/Navy for backpacking. This was around 1989-90 and I went through probably three cases of them over a few years before going away to college. These were in the dark brown bags and were a bit different than what's available today. I ate them exclusively on one three-day hiking trip back in '93. With college and later starting work, I stopped backpacking for almost a decade. I started researching MREs online last winter and found Kman's site very useful. I ordered a few cases of Sopakco MREs and some odds and ends from Long Life Foods and Epicenter and took off for the Silver Lake Wilderness Area in the Adirondacks. Nothing like eating an MRE 7-10 miles from the nearest road. My wife eats them also and is a big fan of the Beef Teriyaki.
The ones I had back in 89/90 were entrees like Chicken ala King, Ham Slice w/Potatoes Au Grautin (like canned ham), Beef Slices in BBQ, Ham & Chicken Loaf, Frankfurters w/Beans (they were like four large Vienna sausages, the beans were great), Pork Pattie (this was dehydrated, not freeze dried, and it stated "dehydrated pork patty" on the bag).
I preferred the old pound cakes to the new ones. They were like flattened cake with all of the air pressed out. The maple walnut was the best. The cakes came in retort pouches which were packaged in paper boxes like the entrees and sides. The dehydrated ketchup was handy; some accessory packs came with a small chocolate fudge bar, which was really good. The freeze dried fruit was ok, but not as filling as the wet packs. The cocoa was awesome. The chocolate cookies and brownies were hard and pretty different from todays.
I've only had Sopakco MREs since because I'm a little wary of getting the real ones online because I'm not sure about the quality. I would appreciate anyone providing me with feedback on this. The Sopakco MREs are a good value, but they lack variety by the case (what gives with having all the same drink mixes, spreads, and desserts?).
Thanks for the forum Kman!
The ones I had back in 89/90 were entrees like Chicken ala King, Ham Slice w/Potatoes Au Grautin (like canned ham), Beef Slices in BBQ, Ham & Chicken Loaf, Frankfurters w/Beans (they were like four large Vienna sausages, the beans were great), Pork Pattie (this was dehydrated, not freeze dried, and it stated "dehydrated pork patty" on the bag).
I preferred the old pound cakes to the new ones. They were like flattened cake with all of the air pressed out. The maple walnut was the best. The cakes came in retort pouches which were packaged in paper boxes like the entrees and sides. The dehydrated ketchup was handy; some accessory packs came with a small chocolate fudge bar, which was really good. The freeze dried fruit was ok, but not as filling as the wet packs. The cocoa was awesome. The chocolate cookies and brownies were hard and pretty different from todays.
I've only had Sopakco MREs since because I'm a little wary of getting the real ones online because I'm not sure about the quality. I would appreciate anyone providing me with feedback on this. The Sopakco MREs are a good value, but they lack variety by the case (what gives with having all the same drink mixes, spreads, and desserts?).
Thanks for the forum Kman!
Welcome to the forums, Hell Devil!
I wouldn't worry about the quality of the real MREs you can get online - I've been buying them for years now (mostly from ebay) and have yet to run into a problem. Sure, there's no guarantee that you won't get some that haven't been kept poorly, but from everyone I've heard from, those cases seem pretty rare. Heck, back in 2000, I took a few MREs from a fairly new case and threw them in the back of my truck for emergencies. They stayed there for three years - through all the summers and winters - until I finally pulled them out and said "I'd better try these to see if they're still good." And sure enough, they tasted as fresh as any other MRE I've eaten.
And on top of that, with the real MREs, you get better variety, more food, heaters, *and* they usually cost less than the Sopakco civilian MREs.
Back to what you were saying about the maple nutcakes....I loved those things, too. If you can believe this...about a year ago, I saw an ebay auction for a case of Maple Nut Cakes (72 of them). Oh man...I would have loved to have picked up that auction because you know those babies were still good. But unfortunately, the guy wanted something like $70+shipping for the case and that's just a little too much for 20 year old maple nut cakes.
I wouldn't worry about the quality of the real MREs you can get online - I've been buying them for years now (mostly from ebay) and have yet to run into a problem. Sure, there's no guarantee that you won't get some that haven't been kept poorly, but from everyone I've heard from, those cases seem pretty rare. Heck, back in 2000, I took a few MREs from a fairly new case and threw them in the back of my truck for emergencies. They stayed there for three years - through all the summers and winters - until I finally pulled them out and said "I'd better try these to see if they're still good." And sure enough, they tasted as fresh as any other MRE I've eaten.
And on top of that, with the real MREs, you get better variety, more food, heaters, *and* they usually cost less than the Sopakco civilian MREs.
Back to what you were saying about the maple nutcakes....I loved those things, too. If you can believe this...about a year ago, I saw an ebay auction for a case of Maple Nut Cakes (72 of them). Oh man...I would have loved to have picked up that auction because you know those babies were still good. But unfortunately, the guy wanted something like $70+shipping for the case and that's just a little too much for 20 year old maple nut cakes.
Greeting Kman !kman wrote:Hi mkmonkey - welcome to the forums! So have you received your MREs from your friend yet? If so, what did you think of them?
Yes I got them on April , 2004 . Wow , almost a year before !
I ordered eight MREs that time but my friend took two packs for his dinner (because his luggage was overweight when packing eight packs of MREs into it , six would be the limit) .
The taste ... well , in my opinion it is very "western style" , the favour is quite unique . I've ate two three of them , one is "Pasta w/tomato sauce" , "Beef Terryaki" and "Chicken w/salsa sauce" .
For the pasta , the taste is too sour , but the main entree itself is certainly not enough for a meal . The chicken , that would be better , but it taste a little bit bitter . I found out that maybe the seasoning problem , as the taste of the salsa protato chips taste almost the same ! The last one , beef terryaki is almost the best among them ... ummm ... that would taste like a chinese "Beef Frank" canned food . That bamboo shoots taste strange , but it certainly make the texture much better .
Anyway , I'm not much care about the taste of the food . All I concern is about the FRH , it is a wonderful kit for lazy guy like me ! A little bit water will give you a hot meal , what can you expect much for that ?
