Hiho!
Finally I decided to share my thoughts about my first MRE. I tried it a while ago so I'll be basing on not so fresh memories and on few photos I took. I'm not an experienced writer and editor but maybe I get better so let's begin.
2017 MRE Menu 2 Beef Shredded in Barbecue Sauce
I was really excited while unboxing my first MRE if you can call it an unboxing, it came wrapped in a foil and seemed damaged (pic below). I wasn't sure if it expired or not as I couldn't find a tag with date code. However single items in the ration were undamaged and tagged as manufactured in 2017.
The first thing I did was mixing a beverage powder with water and... I need to digress. My friend after vacation in the US told me that everything she tasted was a lot sweeter than here in Poland. Even in McDonalds, where you expect that some things should be similar worldwide, the coke was so sweet she couldn't drink it. So with concerns I took a sip and the lemon-lime flavored beverage was sweet but not too sweet at all! My wife didn't like the flavor but it was good for me and I could drink it on more occasions.
I used a FRH to heat both beef and beans inside a cardboard sleeve. It was the first time I used a FRH so the meal wasn't heated properly but I could consider it as warm and edible.
The beef looked more like... well lets say it wasn't appetizing. It was a little too sweet for my taste but dense and full of meat so my overall impression was good. I put the beef, beans, bbq sauce and jalapeno cheese spread on tortillas and all of those things combined made awesome dish. I was hoping that cheese spread will be similar to those dips served in cinemas with nachos and I wasn't wrong. I wish there were 2 packs of it in each MRE.
I was left with oatmeal chocolate chunk cookie for desert. Sadly it was crushed inside the sachet but it didn't affect how it tasted (or maybe it did? ^^). Anyway it was good cookie with big chocolate bits.
I opened the accessory pack out of curiosity as I'm not a coffee fan and I drink it black mostly. But having opened pack I tried the chewing gum which didn't last long, I got used to chew gum for hours. I don't remember how the coffee tasted but I used the creamer with other instant coffee and I liked it.
At the end I can say that this ration made an incredible impression on me and I can't wait to try it again. I'll try to compare it with 2018 version which I just received and maybe I'll post conclusions.
-adam0s
You should try Menu 7 and 6, seven is very good in my opinion for cheap tactical food lol and six is well but to me has an MRE taste to it that seems present in some other entrees I have eaten as it is definitely Mexican food but you know it is definitely not that authentic, maybe the lack of spices? I only hope to see someone from Asia review menu 22 Asian Style Beef Strips with Vegetables as I detest that!
. I'm gonna post a review soon.
...I did buy a $5 mini tripod though