A-Pack Emergency rations

[Trundle]

First off let me note that this is a personal test, all meals were paid for in full and this is an unsolicited review.


So a while back (like 6 months ago) I bought 7 different A Pack meals from TacQm, one each of 6 different kinds and an extra one.
My idea was to give these a run with my entire family taking part in the exercise. The idea was to do it before the start of winter.
So as life happens, it's now 6 months later and we only got around to it this past weekend.

My wife and I decided to take the kids for a day hike to Suikerbosrand and do the 11.5K hike, and at the same time use the rations as the meal for the day.
The idea was to see what we would like to order for emergencies that the entire family would be happy eating.

Our child profile is made up of 4 girls and a boy, (17 - 13) with the two oldest girls being typical "gross" first responders to anything out of the ordinary. The three youngest pestered us for a week they were so excited about the trip, they analyzed the A Packs and debated the merits of each at length. It got to a point that I eventually packed them away to stop the arguments

Last Friday evening, we unpacked them again and my wife suggested that we take extra food along as well as they did not look all that filling. I agreed and we packed in extra fruit and planned to get pizza for supper on Saturday evening after the hike, as we would surely be hungry after the day.

So, Saturday morning see's the Trundle family Suikerbos bound and in a for a quick hike and afternoons rest.

45Trundle himself has been pushing a mouse for the last 3 months with a big project and has grown soft, VERY soft.

Anyway, first stop at 3 km we opened the A packs and out came the cookies, we had a choice of either oatmeal of choc-chip. The kids were gobsmacked, HUGE, HUMUNGOUS and AWESOME were the operative words from their mouths, they had never seen cookies so large. Everyone enjoyed them with some preferring one over the other, but all said they ranked high on the enjoyment list.
Filling, is a more appropriate word for these cookies, and my youngest could not finish hers, nibbiling away at it for the following hour. That was our mid morning snack, along with some water, and it made a meal.

So off we went, and pushed for the 6km mark, that would be our lunch break, the short ones were loving it, 45Trundle was feeling the strain and played rearguard, Mrs Trundle, well she was just motoring ahead.

At the 6km mark we sat down, and debated what we would eat, no one was keen on a full meal, so each made do with crackers and peanut butter, raisins or the toaster pastries. One or two had a piece of fruit. The A Pack loose items were a hit with all and everyone was pleasantly surprised. My wife in particular was impressed with the 'osmotic raisins' they don't sound great but tasted superb.

At this point, I called uncle and said we would do the 10km and not 11.5, the kids laughed at me and teased but I got my way.

So, we made great time back to the car and at the last crest, walked through a 40+ strong troop of baboons, the kids really loved that and were impressed at the size of the big male that took the high ground above us and watched as we moved through the group. We also saw some a fair number of game, Hartebees up close, Wilderbees, Kudu, Zebra, Baboons on more than one occasion and some Eland at a distance.

Back at the carpark, the ladies all went off to toilet and I sampled the Drink mix that was included, a bit tart for my tastes, but the kids really enjoyed them.

We piled back into the car with the kids chatting away are the memories of the day, often various parts of the A Pack came up in discussion and not a bad word was spoken.

Having eaten most of the 'loose' items in the A Packs, we had yet to eat our meal, fortunately I did not mention the pizza option, so we told the kids that supper would be the main meal in their packs.

That evening we sat around the dining-room table and used the flameless ration heaters to warm up our meals, it was really great bonding time and we had plenty of fun with the process of heating our meals. My two oldest in particular (17 and 15) were still unsure of the meals and were reserving judgement.

We each warmed up our meals, it was simple and a fun process for the kids, and I think would be a welcome distraction in a time of emergency.

Once all the meals were heated, we traded 'tastes' with each other to get an opinion of all the meals. Our rating of each main meal is below for your interest. Please note that these are our opinions on the meals and YMMV.

They were graded 1 -5 with 5 being the equivalent of a take-away meal and 1 being not enjoyable.

1 Homestyle Chicken with Noodles and Veg in sauce. (Bland, not that good looking and was improved with the addition of salt and black pepper ~not included)
2.25 Vegetable Stew with beef.
2.25 Pasta with Garden Veg in Tomato sauce (Big tomato flavor, salty)
2.5 Spaghetti with Italian Style Meat sauce (Big tomato flavor and also salty)
3.14 Southwestern Style Chicken with Black beans (Nice and spicy)
3.5 Macaroni and Beef in Sauce (best tasting and looking of all)

All children finished the meals and surprisingly we still had a few crackers, toaster pastries and peanut butter left over, that made an after dinner snack. The kids were even arguing over who would share what. We were quite surprised.

Our general opinion was that they were exceptionally filling, they did cater for a person for a full day (VERY surprising for us) and were interesting enough that one could use them as meals for a number of days.

They are well worth the money for what they represent and cater for.

We will be placing a new order with TacQm shortly to stock up.

[Tweedledee]

Thanks for the review!

[mostlyharmless]

Good review. I was also impressed with the A-Packs...

[JS4]

Great review, thanks!

From my taste of those and your points out of five, I would say your kids are spoiled... but that is just my opinion.

[wrm]

Sheesh JS4 he has like five of them, he has to spoil 'em just to stay (mostly) sane if you ask me.

[Mr_Medic]

Thanks for an awesome review! How big ( dimension wise) are these mre's?

[LukeS]

Now you must try the ranger packs they sell!

[Mr_Medic]

Now you must try the ranger packs they sell!

Which would you reccomend? I'm busy considering buying some or making up my own based on the 3 SANDF Rat packs I have.

I don't like the SANDF rat packs as they are packed without consideration for space imho, so if these are good then for R90 odd bucks I'd just buy a few of those.

Appreciate any response's from guys with experience about these products.

[LukeS]

Haven't tried all of them yet but they are loaded with food. Just remember to buy the ration heaters separate if you need these.

[Mr_Medic]

And the main difference between the ranger ones and the A pack would be? As they're both 12hr packs.
* Appart from the heater being included aspect obviously.