- Opening the waxed inner cardboard box was a little challenging. Here's what it looked like initially after I opened it.
- Here are all the items laid out on the tray.
- The cheese was in the little cardboard sleeve. I noticed two things missing from this ration: a P-38 can opener and a small wooden spoon that should have been included. I'll give it a pass, I'm sure QC issues like this were common during the war anyway. ;)
- Inside the cellophane wrap (and the manufacture claims it is in fact real cellophane) were two packages of biscuits, lemon juice powder, granulated sugar, matches and a Milky Way bar.
- Here's the Milky Way bar in its packaging. It was wrapped in some waxed paper. Credit for attention to detail!
- Here's the sugar, also packed similar (if not exactly) to how it was done in the original rations.
- Now, this was what amazed me the most. It wasn't just canned tuna or meat, they actually went above and beyond to can some actual cheese!
- Here's the Wrigley's Spearmint gum packaging. Looks great!
- I don't think this part of the gum packaging is period correct, but that's nitpicky detail.
- Real Chesterfield cigarettes! I don't smoke (I don't recommend you do either, unless you want lung cancer. And lay off the weed if you like your brain cells.), so these will be neat to add to the collection!
- And here's the entirety of the ration prepared!
I guess I'll start off with the elephant in the room, the cheese. Actually, not bad. It had bits of bacon in it which gave it some extra flavor. The cheese itself tasted like a cross between actual American and Cheddar cheese. The taste was actually similar to modern MRE cheese spread, for those that have tried it. I could have boiled the can in water to heat it up, but I chose not to. I can't imagine the guys in combat took time to eat it heated up, so neither did I.
The Milky Way bar was pretty tasty as well. Oddly enough, the center filling seemed to have a somewhat minty taste to it. I'm not sure why that is. I'm not even sure if it was a real Milky Way bar, but it certainly went well!
The crackers were a bit stale but did the job nonetheless! They were mildly sweet and grainy. I decided to try a bit with the cheese and all it really did was add some crunch to it. It didn't do much in the way of adding flavor, so I continued to eat them separately. Perhaps if I had heated the cheese up first and then added the crackers, it might have led to something more worthwhile.
The lemon powder was very fizzy when I added water to it. The taste was very similar to those lemon powder packets that are designed to be added to a 16.9 fl oz water bottle. So I didn't add the sugar since it was already sweet enough. My understanding is that the original K-ration lemon powder was very sour, strong and just plain undesirable...even with all the sugar added.
To finish it all off was the spearmint gum...which just tasted like the same Wrigley's Spearmint gum you can buy at the store today! I can't comment on the smokes since I don't smoke, but they will certainly have a welcome place in my collection.
Am I impressed? Absolutely! I'd like to come back in a few years and review them again to see if they will make any improvements over time. You can also buy them yourself if you are interested:
https://verlagkopf.com/portfolio/US_rations
Note: This review was originally written in 2022.