It came was a little brochure, here are the pics.
What caught my eye was that there was no meal listing on the MRE's, just a number. This alone was interesting enough, so I bought them.
Without a list, I opened menu number 3 first. Inside was PASTA WITH VEGETABLES IN ALFREDO STYLE SAUCE, a pack of GRANOLA BARS in white packaging from an MCW, a strange paper envelope LEMON LIME BEVERAGE BASE POWDER, which is a bit uncommon since this was a 1999. Also, CRACKERS and APPLE JELLY.
Of course, being too excited, I went for the GRANOLA BARS. As soon as I opened them, a pleasant apple-cinnamon smell came out of it. Just as I hoped, they were completely fresh! A great flavor, and a nice crunch. I only ate one, I plan on eating the other another time.
The beverage base seemed fine, just like the Lemon Lime you see today in MREs. Another interesting thing: All but one of the MRE's I bought in this lot had the paper packaged lemon-lime beverage base. One had the regular plastic one, which hardened into a weird mass. Strange, eh?
The CRACKERS and APPLE JELLY were up next. Crackers had a nice hiss and were fine, but they seemed to be a bit burnt around the edges, which doesn't bother me too much, but it does taste a little burnt
. The APPLE JELLY was fine, packed 8334, with a nice apple flavor and a healthy color. Yet ANOTHER interesting thing: All of these MRE's came with CRACKERS and APPLE JELLY.
I took the PASTA WITH VEGETABLES IN ALFREDO STYLE SAUCE out of an extra FRH I had, and poured it out. First impression? Nice Alfredo scent, smelled like spices. Taste was pretty decent, tasted like a fresh MRE. The taste, however, was a bit bland and needed the salt and pepper. After that, I can safely say this was an awesome entree!
As for the accessory packet, it was like any other civilian MRE. Sugar, spoon, napkin, a moist towelette, creamer salt, and pepper. The creamer was unfortunately shot, and was hard as a rock. Interesting enough, after opening all of the MRE's, some had coffee and some didn't. The coffee, like the creamer, was hard as a rock and rendered useless.
So there's a look at a pretty early civilian MRE. This reminded me a lot of the C menu rations that were around for a little while before being taken off the market. I have to say that this was quite a satisfying meal, and I'm here typing this, so I'm dead.. yet.
CHEERS!
