MREInfo.com

Dear fellows, we have a serious communication problem here. All of us have some goodies that keep hidden, like these. We need to improve the knowledge.

Scattered among stuff that TurtleNomad sent me was some drink sticks. While I've saved the electrolyte and vitamin enhanced mixes for later use (first aid contest, scuba diver school, SAR training), I did a quick taste test for some drinks.
So, I've tried the Hawaian Punch sticks. Here's the results:

- the Wild Purple Smash - the sweetest of all, very nice and powerful blackberry aroma (the fruit, not the phone ) gave me the need for some water after.
- the Lemon Berry Squeeze - less sweet, more pleasant, no thirst "aftertaste", nice raspberry aroma with a hint of lemon. My niece favourite.

- the Fruit Juice Red - STRAWBERRY! My favourite of all, good to have parmanently on the pocket.

The last two have aproximative the same colour, so I put only a picture:
The "sticks" are tailored to be used with bottled water, I've used tap water instead (here in Romania the quality control is very high, so tap water is very safe to drink) with excelent results. After an initial wondering of "how much the heck is 19.6 fl.oz?" I've found that's the common 0.5 liter water bottle, foun absolutely everywhere. I want to try this weekend with some mineral still water to see the differences in taste.

Final: a very nice addition in everyone's drink kit or backpack, improves the desire to hidrate and the tastes. Especially good for small kids in hot weather, is always easy to give them a "juice" when they say "no" to water. I'd wish for more of these.

In your first parcel i almost put a bunch of those in with the kool aid, but ran out of room.
There are tons of them of all kinds

Over here the same issue exists, i have no clue what you have on that side.

Next trip to the supermarket ill take some pics of various isle's, anyone else feel free to also so we can all learn.

I need to apologize at anyone, but this First Aid contest turned my life inside out literally. But Monday I'll depart to Sarajevo and on July 4th all will be over and my life will return to normal.

Sincerely speaking, after I tasted some MRE cases (I think I had 6+ cases), the US civillian stuff (Mountain House FD, Kool Aid, Cliff bars, Spam ) is much more interesting than military stuff. And the most amazing at all are Treesuit's rations (I had 2 of them) that are very compact and very good packs of food.

Thanks for starting this great thread, Adrian!

My very first exposure to individual powdered drink mix sticks was in the first batch of MREs I bought four years ago. I was delighted to find out that there's such a wide variety of civilian ones.

They're not just for wee kids - I started carrying them for times when I intellectually knew I should be drinking more, but my body didn't feel thirsty. As most of you know, sometimes lack of interest in food or water indicates the body really needs it. These are a great way to provide that psychological "nudge" to start drinking.

I'd be very interested in reading more reviews, and please do include what sort of sweetener each uses. I find that aspartame sometimes gives me headaches, so I've been trying other kinds, and even some with no sweetener (Hawaiian Punch).

When I get a chance, I'll post up some pictures of the boxes for the stuff I sent to Adrian, so y'all can find things more easily, in your own stores.


NNF: I'm looking forward to your pics - there seems to be considerable difference between different stores and different regions! Those "Arizona Green Tea" packs were in a store outside of my normal area, which I popped into mainly to check for "unusual" stuff.


Adrian, here's a sneak preview of the "Emergen-C" and "Electro Mix":

Emergen-C:
I'd been hearing great stuff about "Emergen-C" for years, so last fall I bought three different boxes, during a Walmart sale (a little under $8 for a 30-pack box).

I was disappointed with the taste.
It wasn't awful, just very subdued compared to most, um, actually all other powders I'd every tried. That doesn't make them "bad", however I recommend you have very low expectations.

They did seem to be good, at least placebo wise. There were definitely no ill effects, and I drank at least a couple of packets each week during the peek flu risk periods.

Warning: if you do not drink it all, and leave some in the bottle, after a "few" days, stuff will start growing. That's based on two accidental experiments. I need to try that intentionally, and monitor how many days it takes. I've got a couple of older bottles that I've set aside to (intentionally) experiment with.
If this happens to you ("stuff" starts growing), I strongly recommend not reusing the bottle (recycling is your friend).


Electro Mix:
This is made by the same company as "Emergen-C", so my expectation was that it would be good quality, but not be tasty.

I was pleasantly surprised.

I'm not big on "lemon lime" (which is currently the only flavor this special electrolyte mix comes in), but don't mind it.
It wasn't a strong taste, but definitely noticeable, whereas the three flavors of regular Emergen-C I tried all were extremely weak.

I tried it on a hot day, when I had to do a bunch of stuff outside but not anything heavy duty. It did seem to be better than regular water, and I had zero negative effects.

It's sweetened with "stevia", which I've heard some good things about. It's not as cloyingly sweet as many artificial sweeteners.

I have not seen these in any regular store. I found them on Amazon, while looking for electrolyte packets, and decided to order them instead of "pure" electrolyte packets. I was mainly swayed by the name brand recognition, convenience of individual packets, potentially ok flavoring (to promote willingness to drink), and great price.
Currently, they're still available for only $6.14 for 30 packets:

ak70g2 wrote:I need to apologize at anyone, but this First Aid contest turned my life inside out literally. But Monday I'll depart to Sarajevo and on July 4th all will be over and my life will return to normal.

No apology needed!
I'm pretty sure we're all cheering for you and your entire team!

And really looking forward to your after action report(s).

Sincerely speaking, after I tasted some MRE cases (I think I had 6+ cases), the US civillian stuff (Mountain House FD, Kool Aid, Cliff bars, Spam ) is much more interesting than military stuff. And the most amazing at all are Treesuit's rations (I had 2 of them) that are very compact and very good packs of food.

That's a very interesting observation!
I'm looking forward to more reviews, and specific comparisons.

Once I've moved, I too will join the Treesuit Homebrew Ration Fan Club.

I'm back, so new opinions:

Emerg-C - you're absolutely right about taste. Being rich in vitamin B and C is not helping me in this hot weather (is around 100 Fahrenheit here/39 Celsius)

The best drink mix is absolutely the Gatorade, both in electrolyte replacement and in taste. This is the overall winner.

Second choice - the X-Energy mix, both for electrolyte replacement and taste.

Third - the Hawaian Punch mixes, just for taste.

Mention - The Electro-mix, awful taste but very good to curing (first) and preventing muscular cramps in very hot weather and heavy sweating.

Second mention - Arizona Green Tea, very good taste, very refreshing.

After two days and five dives, I can testify that a Gatorade dose in the morning can prevent muscular cramps linked with prolonged swim in the sea. Especially on the hot day when you sweat a lot.

Emergen-C is not a drink per se but a vitamin C suplement for when you got the flu or cold.
It contains more than the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C, vitamin B12 , and vitamin B6. All in one shot!!!
This drink is good for the winter to boost your inmune system and to keep the flu/cold away....