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MRE 24 Hour Ration Pack Review

By Dave Roberts   

on August 12, 2014    No ratings yet.

Posted in Food, Outdoor Gear Reviews, Wild Camping Articles and TutorialsOutdoor Gear Review, beginners, mnom mnom, wild camping

MRE 24 Hour Ration Pack Review

On a recent wild camp, we decided to see if these 24 hour ration packs are any good or are you better off avoiding them altogether. We went for this one by Evaq8 that cost around £16 with postage.

24hr_rat_pack-5020159What’s in it?

The ration pack arrived in a tidy brown box and contained a generous selection of two main meals (an All Day Breakfast and Chicken Pasta) a Cinnamon Turnover along with numerous sundries as well as anything needed to eat them (a spoon). Along with that, there were some small bags of sweets and some healthier dried fruit, Polo Mints, generic cereal bar and a tube of generic hazelnut spread. To wash it down, there’s a sports drink and enough to make a couple of cups of tea, coffee and a hot chocolate. Beyond that, you have a pack of useful tissues, wet wipes and the poly bag that the lot comes in to store your waste. All packing around 3000 calories.

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Was it edible?

We’ll admit, the cola bottles and other little gel sweets didn’t last five minutes. Thete wasn’t a lot of them, but better than a couple of boiled sweets.

This was followed by the cinnamon bun, but with some of the hazelnut spread. That was, once we managed to actually get into it. Only through brute strength did the tube surrender it’s chocolately goodness, which could well have ended up in an exploding tube. If nothing else, it was good for a laugh.

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Beyond that, the pasta was palatable if nothing special, and the breakfast contained some interesting ‘mystery meat’ but was better than porridge. We’d prefer to use dried meals on a trip like this, with the only fresh food finding its way in on merit. A fried egg or some home made curry perhaps, but not these ration packs. You need a large pot to boil-in-the-bag, which is something we’ve found to be impractical while camping, or you can cook them in the pot which is a much better proposition.

Would we recommend this?

Perhaps for someone going on their first overnight camp, or a D of E trip. It takes the thinking out of the planning, and they can see what works for them and what doesn’t until they can work it out for themselves. There’s nothing much to recommend the food’s palatability, it’s OK and nothing more. A better choice would be to take something like Look What We found or some of the better dehydrated meals which may not taste much better but score points for being much lighter to carry as well as less faff to prepare. The cost would also be similar.

While this may contain 3000 calories, I think I’d need a more obvious lunch to bulk this out.

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Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts founded Walk Eryri in 2004, with the aim of providing routes that are off the beaten track. Walk Eryri is now part of Mud and Routes which continues to provide more off beat routes and walks in Snowdonia and beyond. Dave has been exploring the hills of Eryri for over thirty years, and is a qualified Mountain Leader. Dave also established Walk up Snowdon, Walk up Scafell Pike and Walk up Ben Nevis just to mention a few.

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