Hi Guys
Sorry for the long delay - I've managed to eat my way through this ration and thought I would share my impressions with you.
Starting with the 'Meal items' - Porridge is an item i have never seen (in my limited ration experience) I ended up stirring/mixing it for about 10min but never managed to get all the lumps out
It would have probably come out smooth on a stove
it was pretty tasty though - supposed to be chocolate but had a more 'malted'? taste, quite rich, especially after adding creamer and sugar. Apart from the lumps - a good breakfast item!
Next up was the cheese + Crackers
The crackers were nothing special - off the shelf items, dry and crunchy, they would have been hard to eat without the cheese. Luckily the cheese was really good - completely processed, it had that normal 'cheese spread' kind of taste. I ended up using the whole 'tube' on three crackers.
Next were the actual 'Main meal' items - i assume these are supposed to make up most of the calories of the ration. Unfortunately (as ToxicCarbon predicted) the first tin contained Pilchards
which i gave to the cat who was happy to eat them, however they are very popular over here so no points deducted. The next tin (these are really small tins - about half the size of a standard soup tin) was the steak and beans. I made an attempt to heat it up using the fuel tablets. there is no 'stove' supplied(maybe part of field equipment) so i improvised. The problem was that the tin starts hissing and steaming within a few minutes but its only the food closest to the steel walls that gets boiling hot while the rest hasn't changed temperature! I guess this is an area where experience would help.
The entree was ok - it had real meat pieces and beans which is always good., it wasnt 'spiced' very much so ended up being pretty bland, overall it was pretty average.
There was also a soup item - i forgot to take pictures, it was basically the instant 'cup of soup' type, all stock and flavour, no actual real ingredients
Moving on to the beverages.
The lactose free nutritional drink was actually really good - I thought it would be a 'protein shake' type of thing, it was actually very watery with 'gritty' pieces of something in it.
no idea what they were - i would guess a type of grain. it also had a very bland flavor and tasted similar to almond milk. definitely my favourite part of this ration!
The isotonic energy drink was not nearly as good - it was basically just just sugar, salt and artificial flavouring (yes you could taste all three). There was no acidity like in normal drinks so the sweetness was very strong.
finally the 'sweets'
the energy bars and vitamin C sweets seemed to just be off the shelf products repackaged. they were both a bit 'stale' the sweets were rock hard and slightly discoloured, the energy bars were very powdery, not chewy.
Overall: the Porridge and the nutritional energy drink were really good - I have never seen anything like them in a ration. The cheese and crackers were good - obviously the cheese is what limits the shelf life of this ration but it makes a good addition. The Entree's were a let down, they just didn't taste really good or really bad (besides the pilchards) and they were really tough and cumbersome to heat up properly.
The biggest issue though is whether this would be enough food to sustain a physically active individual for a day - i would say no. the calories might just be sufficient but a lot of them are coming from energy bars, porridge, sports drinks, soup, nutritional drinks etc. Personally I would prefer to eat more 'real meals' especially if Its going to be a day or three on just rations. My guess is that these rations would supplement some sort of central kitchen or other food distribution.
not my favourite)
) however I am not sure this would be enough food to sustain an active individual?
Hate pilchards myself.
.