MREs (Meals Ready-to-Eat) Genuine U.S. Military Surplus (1 Pack) Assorted Flavor

I bought this back in July 2018 and I just opened it - it's great! I kept the MRE in my car trunk for 6 years through Texas summers and Illinois winters. The flameless ration heater (FRH) still works and nothing was spoiled. Overall, I recommend it. I've listed everything and my opinion below, too.Chili MRE: I recommend buying an extra package so you can try the flameless ration heater (FRH). There are a couple of steps involved in setting this up and the bag gets hot. However, I did it pretty easily with instructions, just be careful with the heater and squeezing the chili out of the pouch...it's hot! The chili tastes good, it's salty with some spice. It's about as much food as a can of chili from the store and comes with a nice long spoon.Vegetable cracker: 2 large crackers break into 4 smaller crackers each. I ate this with the cheese spread. The cracker was good, cheese was thick. Used a sharp knife to open.Cornbread: surprisingly good. I expected bland and dry cornbread, but it was sweet and moist. Almost like a dessert bread. Nicely done.Cheese crackers: I expected Cheezits, but these are Combos. Really nice surprise, cheddar cheese-stuffed cylindrical crackers. Tasty.Beverage bag: basically a plastic bag to hold water and drink mix (coffee and orange juice). You can place the beverage bag in the FRH bag with MRE to heat up coffee. However, just one beverage bag for both coffee and orange juice...I would purchase and carry one of those silicone collapsible cups.Orange juice: powdered drink mix with 20 grams sugar. I would mix this first in the beverage bag before coffee. Then pour into separate cup. Sugar clumped up in mixing bag and juice tasted like a Vitamin C drink mix, just ok.Instant coffee: Most disappointing of the package. Very little coffee and it did not smell or taste good. However, plenty of non-dairy creamer and sugar included.Other stuff: about 15 small napkins for cleanup or fire tinder. Pack of 20 matches also included. Cheap matches, they won't stay lit very long, but they work. Moist towelette was very moist, tore apart as I unraveled it. Will clean your hands and surfaces. Iodized salt packet with lots of salt. Two pieces of chewing gum not super sweet, nice spearmint flavor.

Cool thing to try and see what's inside. Also cool to have if your into military things.

First and foremost lets get something straight that some people don't understand sometimes (or they expect too much from it). These are not supposed to be fine dining, or even something comparable to a fast food joint. These are meals, that are pre packaged, and shelf stable. They are meant to sustain a warfighter (not a desk warrior) that burns calories like its nothing. They are to sustain them 'temporarily' until a more suitable field kitchen can be set up.Now onto the item itself. This item comes with one main "entrée", a bread or cracker item, spread, and a side/desert item. It also contains a beverage mix. These can be stored for up to 5 years (after doing research and reviewing the NATICK recommended storage) given the right storage settings, and can be utilized best by a civilian in an emergency when there is no other viable food source that can better provide the nutrients needed. A good example would be having to bunker in place during a hurricane, ice storm, or the rapture. It can also be used for those that go hiking, camping, or hunting (although using the heater while hunting may not be a good choice due to the scent the heater gives off).It comes with a heater as well in which a person simply has to put the pouch to be heated in there and add water to the fill line. Place it upright where it can vent and heat better and wait for about 10minutes or so and you'll have a warm meal. It isn't going to be piping hot or "right off the stove" hot, but you'll have a warm meal that will fill you up.If you keep in mind that it is not a long term meal replacer and it "does what it is designed to do" by keeping you from going hungry in a situation; one will enjoy having a shelf stable and easy to store emergency food source at hand. I recommend keeping water around for use as well to heat make the drink and just to have some fluid. I usually have 2 cases of MRE (mainly commercial MRE made with the same contractor components) and two cases of water (24pk 16.9oz) on hand in the house at all time. I also keep about 3 meals in my truck during the winter months along with some bottled water just incase I get stranded somewhere for a bit of time.